[GAP] CrossTalk CS Education article

[Edmond Schonberg]

On Jan 4, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Anthony S Ruocco wrote:

> One of my continuing concerns based on attendance at numerous  
> conference (FIE, SIGCSE) is the notion that students need to have  
> fun in courses.  While I agree that having fun helps and can be  
> part of an exercise, it seems to have hit the point where fun is  
> its own measurable attribute of a course.  Faculty members spend  
> inordinate amount of time ensuring some exercise focuses on being  
> fun for the student, with the intent the student will 'pick up the  
> key points along the way.'  Unfortunately, no one ever goes back to  
> tell the student what the key points should have been!  Many  
> students graduate with no fundamental understanding of 'sequence- 
> selection-iteration' never mind pointer semantics.

There is an interesting parallel with current controversies about  
Math education in K-12.  Professional educators have been battling  
mathematicians for over a decade over "constructivist" approaches  
that supposedly make Math more fun, but leave students completely  
unprepared for college science courses. The general tone of "fuzzy  
math" is to make math learning more entertaining, among other things  
by eliminating the teaching of algorithms (long division is anathema,  
for example). The results are  obvious: scads or remedial math  
courses in college.  We are seeing the same phenomenon between  
college and graduate school, also apparently in the name of fun in  
education.
(Should we launch the slogan: Ada programmers have a better sense of  
humor?)

Ed Schonberg