Mistakes in teaching children programming: TOP-5
Teaching children programming, no matter how the process is structured, is often accompanied by a number of mistakes. Lack of interactivity, motivational measures, lack of practice and boring, too dryly presented theory are typical examples. It may seem that this is only true for simple cheap courses, free online lessons and self-study with video and text instructions, but even in some schools, teaching children to program is objectively suffering. This is a serious disadvantage: it often turns out that parents give money for empty and useless activities.
We are in Pixel We believe that courses to teach a child programming should not be boring and full of practice, based, among other things, on measures of motivation, on high-quality feedback from teachers and on other important principles. Their absence is an objective disadvantage: the quality of the educational process suffers, as does the interest and involvement of students in it. But all this is also true for home studies without a mentor.
If questions about enrolling a child in courses or building an independent route for additional IT education are relevant, we recommend paying attention to a number of points discussed in the article. In it, we presented 5 typical and fairly common mistakes made by teachers in courses, private tutors, and even some parents who teach their children coding on their own.
So, let's move on to the main topic.
5 critical mistakes in teaching children to write code
We identified 5 serious gaps and devoted a separate paragraph to each.
1. Boring theory and little useful practice
If the theory is presented in a boring way and without taking into account the child’s age characteristics, and there is not enough practice provided to consolidate and improve skills, the classes will become useless. Teaching children programming online for free, paid courses, working with tutorials or video instructions does not matter.
Let's figure out what it means:
Boring theory. In our understanding, we are talking about a dry presentation of a set of facts. Bad example: Python is a multi-paradigm, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Unfortunately, such formulations often occur. Even in children's IT schools in courses declared as intended for beginners. It is unlikely that such a phrase will say anything to an inexperienced teenager who does not understand the basics of computer science and algorithms;
Not much useful practice. Teaching children even the basics of programming should be based on practice. The format and other features of the educational process do not play a role: if a child studies and works only with theory, and does not write simple programs, he will not receive practically valuable knowledge and skills. But this does not mean that you need to immediately start coding (not a very appropriate term, but sometimes it is used) in the full sense. You can start with, say, examples of completing projects in Scratch or writing code in Lua to develop simple games in Roblox. It’s trite, but in the case of schoolchildren, this approach works much better than if a simple textbook were used.
Thus, non-boring theory and an emphasis on practice are one of the foundations for the effectiveness of programming courses for children or self-study. Let us also note that these conditional principles imply an additional gap that often occurs. We will not single it out as a separate error; we will only note that when considering questions about where to start learning programming for beginners, it is reasonable to start from the following points:
Movement from simple to complex. It is better to give a preschooler or elementary school student Scratch Jr or Scratch, and a teenager – Python using the example of completing projects in Minecraft. Afterwards you can move on to more complex things;
Focus on interests. Is your child interested in gaming? Then developing games in Roblox in Lua or in Unity using C# are good options. If you are more interested in web development and website creation, JavaScript is suitable. These are examples: the choice of a specific area of study within the framework of information technology should be based on taking into account the interests of the child. In another situation, even boring theory and useful practice will be useless.
2. No motivation and incentives to achieve results
A motivation system is usually talked about in the context of stimulating personnel, but even in programming courses for children or as part of independent studies, such measures must be present. Their absence is fraught with the risk that the child will gradually lose interest, cease to be involved in the educational process and simply abandon the endeavor.
Paid online courses or free programming training for children from scratch is not so important. If an educational program or an independently built study route is not connected with incentives and motives, you should not count on the child’s passion or real results.
Here are some methods suitable for eliminating the corresponding error:
Gamification. We are talking, say, about incentives in the form of conditional rewards for success. For example, we award students points for completing homework and give out prizes for them, which literally forces the children to practice solving problems proposed by teachers. But this, as before, is just an example. That is, it is not always necessary to introduce a point system. Our approach is good for courses, but in the case of self-paced learning, everything changes. You can, say, offer your child some kind of reward for each successfully completed project;
Acceleration of obtaining first results. This principle stems partly from the emphasis on practice: in this case, the first completed projects will already become a good motive and a powerful incentive. It’s easiest in this context for beginners and guys using Scratch, but even in the languages “Python” and “Lua” in the auxiliary environments Minecraft and Roblox, respectively, you can get the first results relatively quickly.
Thus, it is clear that it is important to involve the child in the educational process with the same conditional rewards, and also to show in every possible way that his activity is connected with the prospect of obtaining a valuable result, which is quite real and not abstract.
Really good IT schools and private tutors, in our opinion, should build on the presented principles when teaching children programming online or during face-to-face classes.
3. Lack of structure and methodology, training plan and consistency
All these aspects suffer noticeably in the case of independent lessons. In such situations, even clear and consistent instructions do not always help. Therefore, only a professional organization with an educational license can guarantee the structure, presence of a methodological plan and systematic study.
You can try to prepare a route for additional IT training that would meet the presented criteria, but it will take a lot of time and may become unsuccessful if you do not understand pedagogy and the specific discipline.
Here are the negative aspects that often arise from the presented error:
Chaotic learning. It is expressed in the lack of order in lessons;
Violation of the principle of consistency. This is due to the likelihood of mixed, even parallel consideration of complex and simple things;
Accelerated loss of interest in the topic. A child who learns not systematically and consistently, but chaotically, quickly ceases to be interested in the information offered and even in practice.
4. Lack of objective criticism and positive feedback
The presence of feedback is an additional guarantee of effectively teaching children programming, even from scratch. Who acts as a teacher – parents or teachers – does not matter.
Let’s move away from describing the error and present a good conditional scenario, consisting of a couple of positive principles:
Achievements big and small are celebrated and rewarded. Often even simple praise is enough and can become a powerful incentive;
Failures and mistakes are criticized, but gently. In any of the likely situations, it is necessary that the adult becomes a friend for the child, and not just a teacher, as in a secondary school.
To put it simply and briefly, when teaching programming for free in independent lessons for children or as part of paid courses, it is necessary to adequately evaluate and celebrate both achievements and errors. Only praise or an emphasis on criticism are negative scenarios: in the first case, it may turn out that self-esteem and perception of one’s own achievements will become excessive, and in the second, that the child will begin to feel unable to master the direction and acquire certain digital skills.
5. Lack of interactivity, low level of involvement in the educational process
Interactivity is closely related to the term “interaction”. It should unfold at the following levels:
Adult-child. The parent or teacher acts as the first – does not play a role. It is important that the child is not asked to act completely independently;
Adult-child-programs/learning materials. The latter can be represented by a variety of environments, sources of theory, practical tasks and more. This level should involve interaction between the student and the adult, who are expected to use various materials and similar means to achieve learning goals.
If, say, it comes to teaching children programming for free, then it is necessary that the parent not only take care of the availability of conditional instructions, even self-teaching instructions, but also participate in the process. This can be expressed in the same assessment of intermediate results, in the study of the use of a specific software environment, and more.
If there is no interactivity, interaction between subjects and objects of the conditional educational environment is excluded, and the effectiveness of learning becomes doubtful. In this case, it is unlikely that it will be possible to lay even the basics of coding in lessons for children in the mind of a schoolchild taking his first steps in IT. Only interactivity in the presented sense becomes another guarantee of the child’s involvement in the learning process.
Bonus: where to start teaching your child programming
Taking into account the presented errors, we propose to consider the conditional sequence of preliminary steps. There are 5 of them, which corresponds to the number of errors described. Here's what we're talking about:
Planning the presentation of theory and its consolidation through practice. It is better if there is a full-fledged project for one conventional block of knowledge.
Thinking through the incentive system. Points and other conditional incentives will become an advantage and a means of motivation.
Planning a clear structure. There must be a training plan; there must be a thoughtful, systematic sequence of classes.
Development of feedback measures. To put it simply, it is necessary to celebrate and highlight achievements and mistakes in an adequate manner to reality and objectively, not subjectively. Without unnecessary praise and excessive criticism.
Ensuring interactivity. It involves interaction between subjects and objects within the framework of the noted systems: adult-child, adult-child-subject learning environment.
This procedure is valid for independent study. In the case of courses, the relevant points are usually worked out in advance by methodologists and teachers, which is a plus.
And we want to summarize and once again note the inadmissibility of the presented errors. They make the learning process uninteresting for the child, difficult and even chaotic and inconsistent. You should not count on results in such situations. This is true for programming, robotics, web development, and even digital creativity classes. Virtual learning online or face-to-face lessons, working with tutorials or educational videos, including with help from parents, does not play a role.
Material prepared by Pixel School. We we teach children write code, create games and websites, make three-dimensional models and carry out projects in the field of web and graphic design. We also pay special attention to the quality of the educational process and eliminate the very possibility of occurrence of the considered errors.
