Things I learned about teaching programming from attending an online cooking class. I’m going to try this whole thing. (1/17)

Yesterday, I attended a cooking class via video call. While I mostly enjoyed it and the food we made was tasty, it also left me stressed, really exhausted, and a bit discouraged. So what happened? (2/17)

I read the instructions in advance, which asked us to wash and measure out ingredients, but not prepare them otherwise. There were a lot of ingredients, so I couldn’t measure everything out precisely (I have neither enough bowls nor enough space in my kitchen). (3/17)

When I joined the call, I soon realized that I hadn't received a last-minute e-mail from the school, and I missed out on two crucial prep instructions, so I was already stressed and catching up before we’d even started. (4/17)

During the class, the instructor often demonstrated multiple instructions at once, at their speed. Because I couldn’t measure everything out in advance, I often had to flick between video call and the recipe PDF, and couldn't concentrate on the video instructions. (5/17)

My stove is also ancient and slow, so cooking things took longer for me than the instructor. I felt like I missed many of the instructions a lot of times, and wasn’t sure how to make sure I followed all of them, because they mostly weren’t repeated. (6/17)

The instructor did regularly check whether everyone was on the same page, but I mostly felt like the expectation was I should be ready + I felt bad potentially slowing others down (though I don’t know how well they kept up, I couldn’t see them most of the time). (7/17)

All in all, I didn’t get as much as I hoped out of the class: because I was constantly trying to keep up, I didn’t have a chance to form potential questions in my head. Only after the class was over did I start thinking about what I learned and what I didn't understand (8/17)

The recipe wasn’t that difficult, and I’m not an inexperienced cook. But I felt like I was constantly scrambling, and I found that deeply frustrating. I needed clearer upfront prep instructions, or a slower pace. (9/17)

What does all this have to do with programming? Actually quite a lot, because teaching programming is not that different: you demonstrate concepts + instructions through live-coding to novice learners, who will at first find everything super confusing, because it is. (10/17)

At the same time I, as an instructor, often don't really remember that constant feeling of being overwhelmed all that well, because so many things have become routine or obvious to me. (11/17)

Yesterday’s cooking class was a reminder of what learners experience: software installation instructions that seem clear to me might not be clear to them. They might have a different OS, or might not have been able to install all the necessary software in advance. (12/17)

Learners need to be shown concepts and instructions one at a time. They need time to think through those instructions. They need those instructions + concepts to be repeated. They need time to try things out for themselves, potentially fail, and try again. (13/17)

Learners need breathing room to figure out what they don’t understand, and formulate questions. I learned a lot of that from he @thecarpentries instructor training. Being in the role of the learner yesterday was a powerful demonstration of the value of that training. (14/17)

When I don’t ensure all my learners are set up + ready to go at the start, when I give them too many instructions at once without also allowing them to think through them and experiment, when things are not repeated, I risk leaving learners discouraged and frustrated. (15/17)

I risk leaving them with the feeling that programming is just not for them, or that they’re just not smart enough for it to make sense. But that's not true, and that's the last thing I want them to feel and think. (16/17)

As a cooking class, yesterday wasn’t that great of an experience, and I think I’ll stick to recipe books and video tutorials in the future.

But as a reminder that anything is difficult the first time, and that learners deserve empathy + patience, it was invaluable. /end