On Nov 24, 2009, at 3:18 AM, keith gallagher wrote:
like i said, i'm not sure intuition exists....
What's quite certain is that *claims* of intuitiveness exist. I think it's possible to operationalise the concept. Given languages of similar syntactic complexity, which of several paradigms is easier to learn to a specified criterion? William Billingsley's anecdote suggests (what we should by now expect): a heterogeneous population, some of whom find one approach easier, and some of whom find another. From a teaching point of view, would it be possible to offer two introductory streams, one functional and one imperative, and let students choose and/or transfer early?
