I'm a beginner in web development and are in the process of learning it. I have noticed a bad culture in the teaching web developers community and wanted to share it so hopefully teachers in programming can take note. What is the bad thing I noticed?
The answer is assuming that the students get it. There have been countless of times were I watch a video of a famous web developer teaching web development and they jump over crucial stepping points for understanding which makes the inexperienced developer puzzled. I get that one of the best thing in learning web development is to DIY and solve the problems on your own. But I think a good teacher combined with the students curiosity of trying to solve problems on their own is superior than to just let the student do everything by themself.
A good teacher should not hold the hand of the student but he should also not abandon him. There should be a balance of guiding just enough so the student can explore for himself. Many times there will be a coding tutorial or video where the person teaching is saying "oh just ignore this code", "Ok and then we will go to next step" etc. without explaining properly the current code and current step. Why are the teachers doing this? Is this necessary for someone to learn code? Maybe or maybe not, but one thing is sure and it is that it would make things a lot easier for upcoming web developers if the teacher didn't assume that the student already gets it or that some detail is not important!
Maybe you guys can share some wisdom in this and give upcoming web developers some good advice, cheers!
A good teacher in web development should:
- Not assume that the students knows.
- Teaching in stepping stones, without jumping over crucial points.
- Being aware that the html is the easiest, css is harder and that js is the hardest when it comes to web development and teaching accordingly.
"Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach."
― Aristotle
Questions:
- Why do teachers jump over some crucial points when teaching coding to others?
- Can it have with the nature of the coding culture of being pragmatic and being a doer?
- How should a teacher teach web development to someone?
- What should the student do when he feels that the teacher leave things unexplained?
Checklist for not being a bad teacher:
- [ ] You are not assuming the student just gets it.
- [ ] You are not trying to see how it is from the students perspective.
- [ ] You are not moving on too quickly and leaving things unexplained.
- [ ] You are explaining too much (you are being boring) without letting the student engage with the code.
For beginners here is some advice on how to become good at web development (The advice in the video will always be relevant):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG6XSFeOT3g
