[plt-scheme] Re: HTDP - evidently not for everyone.

Stephen's emphasis on 'problems that are similar' seems 
close to a mix-and-match of the old experiment-with-examples
approach with an HtDP-style framework around it 


On Feb 12, 2010, at 7:52 PM, Todd O'Bryan wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adelphi.edu> wrote:
>>> I wrote:
>>> 
>>>> My textbook makes a point of giving, for each topic, a "worked exercise"
>>>> followed immediately by an unworked exercise that's almost identical, then
>>>> one that's a little more different, and so on.
>> 
>> and Matthias replied:
>> 
>>> .. which of course is the antithesis of HtDP. So perhaps you're just
>>> trying to prove the subject line :-)
>> 
>> Actually, I don't see how this is inconsistent with HtDP at all :-)
>> 
> 
> I have to echo Stephen, here. It seems to me that HtDP's points (and
> it's possible I've completely missed them, even after all this time
> teaching it) are
> 
> 1. The form of the data informs the form of the functions that operate
> on data. In other words, you can write templates that make the "stuff"
> you have to work with visible in a way that encourages you to combine
> it the right way to get what you want.
> 
> 2. Abstraction is powerful. Realizing that you can make things more
> general by factoring out things that are different and introducing
> variables to represent them is one of the most fundamental skills of
> computer science.
> 
> 3. There is a right way to approach problem-solving: think about the
> data's structure, make explicit what you expect to get and what you
> plan to produce, write test cases before you try to write code, etc.
> 
> HtDP introduces functions in the text and then has exercises that are
> something like those functions, but also different from those
> functions. For sharp students, the leap from example function to
> exercise function is usually doable. Stephen seems to be providing
> stepping stones that lead students from the example function to
> something substantially different without as big a leap.
> 
> Let me give you an example. I had students write my-reverse, which is
> just the reverse function. Since the template already encourages them
> to call (my-reverse (rest the-list)), they just have to figure out
> what to do with the first element. Believe it or not, several of them
> could articulate that they needed to "put the first element at the
> end," but had no idea how to do it, even when I asked, "Well, how
> could you do that?"
> 
> That's not terribly surprising until you realize that the problem
> right before my-reverse was called put-at-end and took a symbol and a
> list-of-symbol and did what you'd expect.
> 
> All of them felt stupid when I pointed at the previous function on
> their screens, but feeling stupid when I told them "the trick" didn't
> prevent them from missing it in the first place. Great programmers
> have a remarkable intuition about how to jump these problem-solving
> gaps, but solid programmers may not and may need more of the details
> filled in. This is not unique to programming. I've been teaching some
> middle school kids math to get ready for the MathCounts competition.
> The hardest problems are sometimes orders of magnitude more difficult
> than the exact same problem with an additional line drawn in the
> diagram. The hard part is figuring out where to "draw the line". I
> think HtDP gives people the opportunity to jump the gaps, but I don't
> think it's inconsistent with HtDP to make the gaps less wide.
> 
> Then again, maybe I've missed the whole point.
> 
> Todd
> 
> P.S. Two of my former students, both college sophomores this year, are
> doing really well in the internship hunt this year. One has already
> been offered a spot at Google and the other has on-site interviews at
> both Microsoft and Fog Creek Software, the home of Joel from Joel on
> Software. Both started in HtDP, but took my AP class before I knew
> about HtDC. These curricula have the ability to reach a huge range of
> students--from these insanely smart ones to students who learn to
> organize their thoughts for the first time because the computer makes
> them.
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