The definitive resource for understanding what coding is, designed for educators and parents
Even though the vast majority of teachers, parents, and students understand the importance of computer science in the 21st century, many struggle to find appropriate educational resources. Don't Teach Coding: Until You Read This Book fills a gap in current knowledge by explaining exactly what coding is and addressing why and how to teach the subject. Providing a historically grounded, philosophically sensitive description of computer coding, this book helps readers understand the best practices for teaching computer science to their students and their children.
The authors, experts in teaching computer sciences to students of all ages, offer practical insights on whether coding is a field for everyone, as opposed to a field reserved for specialists. This innovative book provides an overview of recent scientific research on how the brain learns coding, and features practical exercises that strengthen coding skills. Clear, straightforward chapters discuss a broad range of questions using principles of computer science, such as why we should teach students to code and is coding a science, engineering, technology, mathematics, or language? Helping readers understand the principles and issues of coding education, this book:
Helps those with no previous background in computer science education understand the questions and debates within the field Explores the history of computer science education and its influence on the present Views teaching practices through a computational lens Addresses why many schools fail to teach computer science adequately Explains contemporary issues in computer science such as the language wars and trends that equate coding with essential life skills like reading and writing
Don't Teach Coding: Until You Read This Book is a valuable resource for K-12 educators in computer science education and parents wishing to understand the field to help chart their children’s education path.
By:
Lindsey D. Handley,
Stephen R. Foster
Imprint: Jossey-Bass Inc.,U.S.
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 221mm,
Width: 145mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9781119602620
ISBN 10: 1119602629
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 03 April 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
About the Authors xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Who is This Book For? 3 Let’s Do It! 3 Chapter 1: Prologues 5 A Wizard’s Tale 5 The Sorting of Wizards 5 The Call to Action 10 A Language Without 10 Our Strange Protagonists 10 (cons 'Apple 'Soft) 13 Tower of Babel 15 Confessions 16 Penances 17 A Language Within 17 Installing Languages 17 Writing in Tongues 19 Kiss, Gift, Poison 20 Nova: Va o no va? 22 Hello, Hello, Hello 23 Languages Without 25 Tongueless Languages 27 Babbage’s Calculus Club 29 Diffs 31 Finite Descriptions of the Infinite 31 Bottling the Human Will 33 Machines Anchor Language 35 Now That It’s Out of Our System 39 Languages Within 40 Signed Languages 42 Silent Battles 43 Our Strange Citizens of Broca’s Area 49 Chapter 2: Beginnings 51 A Wizard’s Tale 51 The Leap of Faith 51 The Forge 53 They Slept 56 A Language Without 56 Syntax – Building Materials 59 A Meta-Linguistic Meander 60 Back to Syntax 62 Semantics: “When your eyes see this, do this with your mind . . . ” 63 Checking Assumptions 65 We Have a “Language.” Now What? 66 A Language Within 66 Cats 66 Stories and Back Stories 71 Ab(stract) 74 Shortest Path: Dijkstra to You 75 A Brave New Syntax 79 Languages Without 81 The Unwritten, Unwritable Backstory 83 Three Old Friends: Language, Math, Algorithms 84 Algorithms of Antiquity 88 A Brief Story of Stories 90 Languages Within 91 Foreign Language: A Friend, Perhaps a Mentor 96 Zapping Broca’s Area 97 More Monkey Business 98 Chapter 3: Middles 101 A Wizard’s Tale 101 Purgatory 101 Descent 103 Ascent 105 A Language Without 106 (Stories (Within Stories)) 106 Order Word 111 Easing the Transition 113 Magic Tricks 114 A Language Within 122 Implicit Learning 122 Animation 122 Napoleon’s Risky Maneuver 126 Noughts and Crosses 131 Round Stories; Square Frames 132 Languages Without 133 Illusions of Mind 133 Dactylonomy: Digits to Digital 134 Externalization 137 The Spark of the Pascaline 139 The Best of all Possible Languages 141 Automatons 144 King Ludd 147 The Song for the Luddites 149 Languages Within 152 The Machine Within 152 Potions for the Mind 152 Science and Schools 154 Mindset 156 Metacognition 158 Deliberate Practice 160 Second Language Acquisition 160 Krash Course 162 Fluency and Expertise 164 What It Feels Like to Upgrade Your Own Wetware 166 Meta-teaching 168 A Universal Educational Language 169 The Loop of Being Human 173 Chapter 4: Ends 175 A Wizard’s Tale 176 Learn to Teach; Teach to Learn 176 Montage 178 Loop Back 183 The Beginning 184 A Language Without 184 Our Road Thus Far 184 Definitions 185 Becoming the Machine 187 Loops 188 Mad Libs 190 Turing Completeness 191 Ifs 196 Extending Language 199 A Language Within 200 So lernt man lernen: Der Weg zum Erfolg 200 Designing Your Deck 207 The System 210 Unburdening Yourself 213 Parting Exercises 214 Languages Without 215 The Flood and the Tower 215 Soft is the New Hard, and the Old Hard 216 Abstraction’s Arrow 218 Languages Within 224 The Education Bottleneck 224 History’s First Coding Students 225 (environment (mind (fluency))) 228 Co-Authoring the EdTech Story 233 Babbages and Lovelaces of Education 238 This Final Section Has No Name 240 Conclusion 241 Next Steps: Learning Sciences 241 Next Steps: Languages to Learn 242 Next Steps: Coding 242 Next Steps: Software Engineering 242 Next Steps: Hacker Culture 243 Next Steps: History 243 Naming Things: Computer Science 244 Naming Things: Philosophy of Mind 245 Naming Things: Learning Science 245 Thank You 246 Bibliography 247 Index 259
STEPHEN R. FOSTER, PHD, is a researcher, author, and co-founder of several social enterprises with a mission to teach teachers how to teach coding. An expert in video game end-user programming and computer science education, Stephen has coded to generate peer-reviewed scientific results, coded to build educational technology solutions for teachers and students, and coded to bootstrap educational startups and non-profit organizations. LINDSEY D. HANDLEY, PHD, is a teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, author, and co-founder, with Stephen Foster, of ThoughtSTEM and MetaCoders.org, which have helped hundreds of thousands of beginning coders. She is a passionate advocate of both using science to improve education and of improving the teaching of science worldwide.
