【國外編輯部專欄】程式設計是與生俱來的天分嗎?

 

作者/SYLVIA MARTINEZ

編譯/陳孟嫻、蘇煜翔

 

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「為什麼要學寫程式?又不是每個人都適合。這麼做只是浪費大家時間。」偶爾會聽到這類的說法。我並不同意,我認為程式設計其實是博雅教育、一種表達自我以及了解世界的方法。

我曾是一個完完全全符合這刻板印象的孩子,完美主義、過度極端、社交障礙,而且非常自我封閉。我相信至今還是有很多的程式設計師符合這種「怪咖」形象,只因為學校把電腦科學塑造成好像只有擁有這些人格特質的人才有辦法適應的樣子。

當我更進一步研究教育方法,我才發現學校經常「拒教」擁有不同思考模式和解題方法的人。然而,在教育過程中若能容許不只「一種」的學習方法,也許能造就更多優秀的程式設計師。目前已有許多程式設計教學的研究提出了更具包容性,且不同於現在的教法。

我們極需更多元的人才來成為程式設計師、自造者、工程師以及科學家。我相信若能不管人格特質而給予每位年輕人相同的機會,我們必能培養出更多強大、活躍、具備科學知識以及良好決策能力的公民。

我的意思是,現有的教育模式使我們病態的認為:具備某些人格特質的人才能成為程式設計師,而非他們本來就較具編寫程式的能力。

 

【作者介紹:Sylvia Martinez】

加州大學洛杉磯分校電機系、派普丁大學教育科技系碩士畢業。曾任美國教育非營利組織Generation Yes(http://www.genyes.org/)執行長,合著有Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom。該書被譽為「校園自造者運動聖經」。

 

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A comment I hear every once in a while goes something like this: “Why teach programming to everyone? There is a “programmer type” and not all kids are “that way”. It’s just a waste of everyone’s time!”

I don’t agree. I believe programming is a liberal art – a way to express yourself and make sense of the world.

I recognize the stereotype. I was that kid. Driven, intense, socially awkward, and able to tune out the outside world. I also believe that many programmers today do fit that “nerd” profile because the artificial nature of computer science in school creates a pathway that is amenable to this personality type.

The more I learn about learning, the more I realize that school often “coaches out” people who think differently and have different problem-solving styles. People who might have become amazing programmers if there wasn’t only “one way” allowed. There have been many studies about teaching programming and many point to ways to teach it that are very different than we use now. More inclusive, but untraditional ways.

We desperately need a wider variety of people to become programmers, makers, engineers and scientists. I firmly believe that allowing young people the chance to follow these paths, no matter who they are or what they natural styles are will create a stronger, more vibrant citizenry who understand science and can make good decisions about their lives.

What I’m saying is that the fact that programmers tend to be a certain personality type is a symptom of the way we currently teach – not that they naturally make better programmers.

 

【Author:Sylvia Martinez】

Sylvia Martinez holds a Master’s in Educational Technology from Pepperdine, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCLA. For the past ten years, she has been President of Generation YES, a non-profit organization

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圖片來源:Kenming Wang@flickr

原文刊登於《sylviamartinez.com》,經作者Sylvia Martinez授權編譯,未經許可不得轉載

 

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