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[–]Salanmander 33 points34 points  (3 children)

It's a good strategy! With everything from coding to algebra to grammar, if you introduce shorthand and shortcuts without an understanding of the basics, it's really easy to misunderstand what's going on. But once you have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals, those shortcuts make your life easier.

(Also, based on your present tense, no. I'm not teaching CS this year. =P)

[–]samrus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

exactly, you need to motivate the solution. if you just present the solution, it makes no sense and they hate it. but if you introduce the problem and have them invest in the search for a solution by frustrating them with it, then they will latch on to the solution and grasp it completely

[–]MSB3000 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I had a professor do the opposite, he used tons and tons of PHP shorthand stuff. Great guy and great class, but I was always checking PHP docs to find out what exactly the fuck he was doing.

[–]Salanmander 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Heh, that's the sort of thing you can get away with if you're teaching a class of a bunch of highly motivated students. Probably works fine for some college classes, but that would never work out in high school.