[Tutor] taking Python to next level (original) (raw)
Allyn Weaks "allyn." at tardigrade.net
Sun Jul 18 06:46:03 CEST 2004
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On 18/7/2004, Magnus Lyckå wrote:
At 12:10 2004-07-17 -0700, Danny Yoo wrote:
we learn more quickly from mistakes than from successes.) I'm not so sure about that.
Secondly, there are an infinite number of ways to write a program. Learning one way not to write doesn't seem very helpful.
Indeed. Mistakes can (though don't always) convey information about what to avoid, but they say nothing about what to actively do. Learning primarily by mistakes is a losing battle. Building up a succession of successes is what takes you directly to the meat of things.
There's a lot of hard evidence that all animals, even invertebrates such as bees, learn mostly from success--it's hardwired even deeper than the brain stem. But as with just about everything, it's best that the success not be random. There are now pretty well understood ways to streamline the process for many subjects/tasks, but making things better for the student can be more labor intensive on the teacher's end--since students vary, the exact path to teach them most effectively does too...
Mark Plonsky's <http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/lib-sci.htm> points to some good basic references about learning theory. The somewhat extreme application to human teaching tries to set things up so that the student never makes a mistake; it's alleged to be very effective for things like hand writing and basic arithmetic so far. IIRC it's called 'perfect learning' or 'perfect teaching', but it's hard to google for because both phrases are randomly common.
Allyn Weaks allyn at tardigrade.net Seattle, WA Sunset zone 5 Pacific NW Native Wildlife Gardening: http://www.tardigrade.org/natives/ "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt
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