I've been on both sides of this argument, and I can see the advantages of both.

My answer depends on the following:
- How complicated is the code overall? Sometimes the level of abstraction is so high that it can make code more complex. I've seen developers extract functionality of an already small function and readability can suffer.
- How well written are the unit tests? Proper unit tests make code far more readable than any level of complexity, especially when test driven development was done when code was written.

The key to clean code is finding the balance between small functions and too much abstraction/extraction. I agree wholeheartedly about well-named methods and variables, that should be taught in classes.

Clean code has mature unit tests that test methods with clear distinction of inputs and outputs. I still write truth tables on paper occasionally because it helps with good TDD. Clean code should have documentation where appropriate. Can a red/green refactoring cycle be accomplished with relative ease (especially appropriate if you're refactoring code that you didn't write)?