Questions tagged [student-motivation]

Questions about motivating students to study, participate, or take interest in the field of Computer Science. This tag can be used to ask questions regarding motivating students in the context of Computer Science (e.g. motivating them to self-teach or to work with others etc. as well as motivating them to study Computer Science)

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57 votes
27 answers
19k views

How to teach a person to enjoy programming?

I've been teaching programming to my 13-year old son for over a year now. I'm not satisfied with his progress. I think that one of the reasons is his attitude: He wants to learn programming (he said ...
Glory to Russia's user avatar
113 votes
22 answers
29k views

Is there some meaningful percentage of students who can't learn to program?

A few days ago, I had a high school sophomore (who is now in her third CS class, having passed the prior two) look at this Java code for a solid 3-5 minutes, and was unable to figure out what it did: <...
Ben I.'s user avatar
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22 votes
13 answers
4k views

Problematic student at a very high level

I teach a high school student who has already developed an understanding of the language used in my curriculum and causes difficulties. The lectures and programming projects in the curriculum bore ...
ItamarG3's user avatar
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20 votes
5 answers
2k views

Do you see the "Bimodal Distribution" too?

When people learn programming in a school setting, tests show a "two hump" tendency. Some students race ahead and grasp it relatively well and others struggle. Apparently this is more pronounced in ...
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4 votes
4 answers
502 views

How can I improve my understanding in Computer Science?

I am new to Computer Sciences, working as machine learning engineer. I only know the basics of programming. How can I improve my technical comprehension so that I will be able solve different ...
Fasty's user avatar
  • 169
4 votes
4 answers
197 views

Engagement advice on Creative computing

I'm preparing a course for next year, aimed at kids from ~6-16. It's based around the concept of creative computing: http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/index.html I think it will be a great ...
Dani's user avatar
  • 141
29 votes
14 answers
7k views

How do you encourage students to take criticism of their code constructively?

How do you encourage students to benefit from code reviews you give them, rather than being discouraged or responding defensively?
Ellen Spertus's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
2k views

What can the instructor do to overcome the Authenticity Bias in students?

A recent Blog post by Eugene Wallingford raises the issue that students often perform according to their perception of their abilities rather than their actual abilities. If a student performs better ...
Buffy's user avatar
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15 votes
8 answers
1k views

How can I determine if a student would enjoy or has an aptitude for CS?

I'm a developer with a little CS teaching history, and I have a nephew who enjoys math (Algebra-Calculus) quite a bit in high school. Because of this, I feel like he should at least try computer ...
JPhi1618's user avatar
  • 251
13 votes
7 answers
4k views

How do you make your CS lectures more interesting?

My biggest challenge each semester is keeping students engaged in class. It's obvious that most of them would rather be somewhere else. I don't know if it's the students, my lecture, or both. I wish I ...
Edwin Torres's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
669 views

Why did interest in CS majors plummet in the United States after the mid-80s?

As shown by the following graph, the percentage of U.S. college students earning bachelor's degrees in CS peaked in 1986, with the percent of freshmen planning to major in CS peaking for the classes ...
Ellen Spertus's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
487 views

Making Technical Presentations Safe for Novices

One useful skill in CS is presentation of technical material to peers and/or superiors. Novices, however, often come to computing as introverts for whom public speaking is difficult and even ...
Buffy's user avatar
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7 votes
5 answers
699 views

How can I maintain interest in front end?

When I teach front end web development, it always happens that I start the year with a bunch of students who are ready to redesign Facebook on day 1. With expectations like that, it's always a letdown ...
thesecretmaster's user avatar
  • 4,785
6 votes
4 answers
340 views

Answering student questions as they work outside class

If your students are like mine, they do a lot of their work outside my view; at home, on weekends, etc. But as they work they sometimes get stuck. They get questions for which they need the answers in ...
Buffy's user avatar
  • 35.7k