161–170 of 175 posts
I had a language class once with a student that was clearly not at our level constantly asking questions that the other students all already knew. As a mature adult, I attributed this lack of consideration for others to the individual, not the entire gender.
That's not a call for single-sex education. That's a call for good teachers who are willing to crack down on the class clown. There's always a class clown, and he always needs to be cracked down upon for the good of the class. This is teaching 101. Sorry you didn't have a good teacher. >Dave was really excited by the class, and, like me and the other volunteers, had a lot of experience with Python. Sounds like Dave w…
"That's a call for good teachers who are willing to crack down on the class clown. There's always a class clown, and he always needs to be cracked down upon for the good of the class. This is teaching 101. Sorry you didn't have a good teacher." Most of the people who lecture at these events are programmers, not folks who have a masters in teaching along with their state certification.
And its great that people within the business are prepared to help others out.
Perhaps there is a need for a 'facilitator's FAQ' that could provide quick strategies for situations like this?
Anyone any idea where to host such a publication?
PS: why was 'Dave' allowed to join the workshop half way through?
Using the Montessori method would have solved many of the issues presented by the OP. Dave would have been in a group where he'd be able to show others directly, if Dave wasn't in a group, he'd be quickly identified by the teacher as someone who didn't need help and could possibly benefit the group. Dave: Teacher: Dave, it looks like you know a lot about arrays, Laura is struggling a bit, can you help her out? Dave w…
I do stuff about peer feedback and explaining in words in my Maths classes, then the peer tutoring works a lot better.
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While I agree a 50-50 gender ratio seems artificial at the moment, fact of the matter is the tech industry is becoming one of the great sources of power in society (think skynet). I think for the sake of civilization, we should try to involve women as much as we can and aim for the 50-50.
Currently, there are substantially more females than males (60/40) among people receiving college degrees: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/06/women-dominate-higher-ed... Education is the widely recognized source of power. Should we strive for 50/50 and if so, how should we achieve it?
Perhaps building applications and managing data will involve more visual tools that allow domain specific knowledge to be applied directly?
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"That's a call for good teachers who are willing to crack down on the class clown. There's always a class clown, and he always needs to be cracked down upon for the good of the class. This is teaching 101. Sorry you didn't have a good teacher." Most of the people who lecture at these events are programmers, not folks who have a masters in teaching along with their state certification.
Certification and ability are different things. Contrary to popular belief, certification does not magically endow somebody with abilities, it only (slightly) raises the chances that person possesses necessary abilities. However there are a lot of people perfectly capable of teaching without certificates, and, unfortunately, plenty of people with certificates totally incapable of doing so. Looks like the author of th…
Can't speak for US, but in UK a large part of PGCE courses is devoted to reflecting and acting on experience gained in a supervised teaching placement.
Sometimes you need to dig a bit deeper to process the experience, my favourite out of date theory is Schon's single and double loop learning.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm
For coders: single loop learning is when you change the way you name variables or re-write your code to make the logic clearer. Double loop learning is the stuff Michael Lopp writes about.
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I have learned (hopefully learned!) to only use this style of learning when I am one-on-one with an instructor, and never in a classroom full of peer students. Even then, not every instructor (or a person who effectively serves as an instructor) can stand this. Here I have to trust my people's judgement and sometimes I do misjudge. I recall one of my colleagues and coworkers with whom I could not maintain a meaningfu…
I see probing questions as the sole justification of the classroom format. If I'm to merely sit and listen, I'd much rather have either a good text or a recording of a professionally produced lecture to watch at my own pace.
When I say "student", I mean anyone in the audience, and "instructor" is anyone at the podium, talking.
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The pejorative usage of "brogrammer" is more like "a programmer who displays all the worst characteristics normally associated with high school jocks" -- things like arrogance, misogyny, bullying, and unwarranted aggression. (Not rendering any judgment on whether you do or don't fit this definition, just making sure everyone is clear on what was being implied above.)
The pejorative usage of "brogrammer" is more like "a programmer who displays all the worst characteristics normally associated with high school jocks" -- things like arrogance, misogyny, bullying, and unwarranted aggression Who associates these characteristics with "high school jocks" and who assumes these are negative characteristics? Arrogance (i.e., a superior male) misogyny (i.e., a man who the woman I lust after…
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You're demanding hard conclusions where there aren't any. However, they can be said to exhibit a tendency where the chances aren't exactly 100%. It's the difference between correlation and causation, and correlation is not "meaningless."
> You're demanding hard conclusions where there aren't any. I am demanding hard conclusions, failing which I am demanding you don't make any if you aren't sure(gender difference became apparent to me that day, gender segregation works etc). > It's the difference between correlation and causation, and correlation is not "meaningless." I didn't claim correlation is meaningless - I just claimed you are claiming correlat…
This is where you're dishonest: You say you're looking for hard connections, yet any evidence is subject to a value judgement on your part. Tails I lose.
I have no idea to solve the helpful jerk problem but I can think of possible solutions. - If a "Helpful jerk" was at a class at a school they would be asked to leave by the teacher. This would be the final response. If they are being that disruptive then the time it takes for you to ask them to leave would salvage the course. - Assign skill levels to tables. Possibly make a leader with the highest skills. (Bitboxer h…
Just ask the jerk to stop asking questions and making remarks. You're trying to teach a class and that involves input and interaction of all students, not just the one. As a teacher you are responsible for the learning climate in the room and you can act accordingly. If the jerk doesn't like that, (s)he can leave.
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> You're demanding hard conclusions where there aren't any. I am demanding hard conclusions, failing which I am demanding you don't make any if you aren't sure(gender difference became apparent to me that day, gender segregation works etc). > It's the difference between correlation and causation, and correlation is not "meaningless." I didn't claim correlation is meaningless - I just claimed you are claiming correlat…
If you can cite me correlation between gender and behavioral traits when it comes to learning, and that study isn't some crackpot theory based on how I taught a ruby workshop, This is where you're dishonest: You say you're looking for hard connections, yet any evidence is subject to a value judgement on your part. Tails I lose.
I am looking for correlation, as in the sense correlation is defined, or causation. I don't think correlation or causation is open to value judgement.