<story><title>How to help a programming student get unstuck</title><url>https://offbyone.us/posts/how-to-help-a-student-get-unstuck/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hdctambien</author><text>This is pretty much how I taught my High School Computer Science classes.&lt;p&gt;The biggest step for me was to never touch the student keyboards. And then I basically only answered their questions with more questions.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I would hear students grumble &amp;quot;He never answers my questions...&amp;quot;, But in the long run, they would start asking themselves the same questions they knew I would ask (what did you expect it to do?, what did it do?, Why did it do that?)... Then they would usually solve their problem without me!&lt;p&gt;Or, when they called me over they would start with &amp;quot;I tried a, b, and c&amp;quot; and got results x, y, and z&amp;quot; which is a way better start to a learning experience for everyone than the old &amp;quot;it doesn&amp;#x27;t work, fix it, please&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>keb_</author><text>I personally think this is bad advice. I&amp;#x27;ve experienced this kind of method through a friend of mine; it was always more frustrating than it was worth. I knew he has good intentions, but the truth is, &lt;i&gt;different people learn &lt;/i&gt;differently*. When I ask questions, its often to try to build context or a mental map before I tackle a problem. I think that, while being cryptic and only answering questions with more questions can help nudge certain students in the right direction, it will just frustrate and confuse others. My guess is that for every student you&amp;#x27;ve found this method successful with, there were 3 students who just gave up on asking you for advice because they&amp;#x27;d just assume you&amp;#x27;d elude them again -- and these are invisible failures.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I stopped asking that certain friend for advice after one too many frustrating sessions.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to help a programming student get unstuck</title><url>https://offbyone.us/posts/how-to-help-a-student-get-unstuck/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hdctambien</author><text>This is pretty much how I taught my High School Computer Science classes.&lt;p&gt;The biggest step for me was to never touch the student keyboards. And then I basically only answered their questions with more questions.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I would hear students grumble &amp;quot;He never answers my questions...&amp;quot;, But in the long run, they would start asking themselves the same questions they knew I would ask (what did you expect it to do?, what did it do?, Why did it do that?)... Then they would usually solve their problem without me!&lt;p&gt;Or, when they called me over they would start with &amp;quot;I tried a, b, and c&amp;quot; and got results x, y, and z&amp;quot; which is a way better start to a learning experience for everyone than the old &amp;quot;it doesn&amp;#x27;t work, fix it, please&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Buttons840</author><text>&amp;gt; Sometimes I would hear students grumble &amp;quot;He never answers my questions...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Did you ever explain why you are doing this? After walking a student through their problem I would praise them and point out they solved the problem themselves. Some people may perceive your style as you being annoyed or unwilling to fully help, so explaining explicitly why you&amp;#x27;re helping that way would be good.</text></comment>