Re:Coding for Kids: Linda Liukas on Nurturing Your Child’s T...
by shakna on Monday October 24, 2016 @07:41AM
(#12777996)
Programming has been added to the national curriculum in my country!
While awesome, the disconnect between what a teacher says they can do, and what is actually in their skillset is causing problems.
They teach Scratch in a school I work with, from the 3rd Grade till 5th.
I was asked to observe a teacher, after all their students got perfect scores, but when asked questions like, "How do you do something repeatedly?" and "How can you group commands together?" we got shrugs.
The teacher was dictating from a blog post... So not teaching.
I pulled aside the teacher, who was a math teacher, afraid of computers, and explained Lambda Calculus, and then explained Scratch in terms of that.
The teacher proudly showed me, a week later, that they made a number guessing game in Scratch. Cool, but why would I trust you to teach my child?
The principal is finally considering whether they should hire a programmer, one day a week, for the 8 classes taught in the primary school level.
Managers can be difficult when explaining needs. Schools despise changing anything, why do you need someone who knows programming to teach it? Any teacher can teach.
While awesome, the disconnect between what a teacher says they can do, and what is actually in their skillset is causing problems.
They teach Scratch in a school I work with, from the 3rd Grade till 5th.
I was asked to observe a teacher, after all their students got perfect scores, but when asked questions like, "How do you do something repeatedly?" and "How can you group commands together?" we got shrugs.
The teacher was dictating from a blog post... So not teaching.
I pulled aside the teacher, who was a math teacher, afraid of computers, and explained Lambda Calculus, and then explained Scratch in terms of that.
The teacher proudly showed me, a week later, that they made a number guessing game in Scratch. Cool, but why would I trust you to teach my child?
The principal is finally considering whether they should hire a programmer, one day a week, for the 8 classes taught in the primary school level.
Managers can be difficult when explaining needs. Schools despise changing anything, why do you need someone who knows programming to teach it? Any teacher can teach.