Toward coherence in learning to program
Alfred M. Bork · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 1985
We see in the school systems in the United States and elsewhere a tremendous current urge to teach programming at a variety of levels.Sometimes this is done simply because of a general belief that programming is "'good" for the students.Sometimes it is done under the guise of increasing reasoning capabilities, or problem solving capabilities, or creative capabilities, or intelligence, although little empirical evidence exists for any of these.Sometimes it is done under the guise of "computer literacy", although many other things are often given under that rubric, with no consensus as to what should be included.Sometimes it is done for vocational reasons.We do not discuss the question of whether prograonning should be taught or at what grade level it should be taught.All those are interesting issues, but they seem to be very difficult issues to decide.Rather our question is, if programming is taught, what should be the criteria that determine what happens.We do not intend to restrict ourselves in any way whatsoever to the currently available languages, systems, or approaches.We would argue that most of these strategies are inadequate.Professionals in computer science have given little thought to how programming should be taught, if it is taught at all.Most of the "advisors" in the school situation are not computer scientists, and most computer scientists, except for complaining about the teaching of inferior languages such as BASIC, have had little to say about the situation.