REGARDING None Hello again... Please excuse an overabundance of e-mails from me today. I tried to send the below message about a fortnight ago but something went bizarre with the e-mail... I will now try and send it again. ------------ I am currently attempting to get a handle on approaches for the education of programming. For example, the most effective techniques, what information should be conveyed to students, what kind of exercises should be set and the effectiveness of particular approaches (classroom vs lab, case studies, 'here's a spec, go program it for me please...'). I am also searching for information relating to recommended curriculum relating to introductory courses in programming. I have found one or two references relating to the education of programming and I intend to search for some more. One is a whole book entitled 'Teaching and learning computer programming: multiple research perspectives' by R. Mayer, another, a paper by Carver and Risinger entitled 'improving childrens debugging skills' in ESP 2 (both of which are not in any of the three university libraries around where I study! Interlibrary loans takes ages!). My specific interest is this : The teaching of approaches to software maintenance. Can it be done? And if so, what sort of instruction could be created? And what evidence is there to suggest that teaching 'perceptive strategies' may improve performance in programmers? I have begun read things about the teaching of reading strategies in children and individuals who have learning difficulties.... but a part of me says that this is off the beaten track a little bit... I'm not sure. One half of me tells me to follow this route because it looks really interesting but another part says to remain in the trenches of computing and not go too far afield. Any opinions, references, contacts from other people who have done stuff in this area will be most appreciated! I intend to create a combined 'reference list/paper summary' document concerning this area. If anyone is interested in the outcome, please drop me an e-mail. Cheers Christopher Douce UMIST, Mancheser, UK.
