February 12, 2024 • 24 mins
Hello and welcome to "How to Teach Computer Science", the podcast. I've had a lot of people say to me, Alan, your book has been recommended to me and it looks fantastic, but I just don't have time to read it. So if that was you, here it is. Here's the pod.. And welcome to the opening episode. There are jokes, a competition and lots of pedagogy.
Transcript is available on your podcasting app and on my blog here
All episodes can be found at pod.httcs.online
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
welcome to how to teachcomputer science the podcast.
This is episode one.
What's this all about then?
Well, I've had a lot of people say tome, Alan, your book has been recommended
to me and it looks fantastic, butI just don't have time to read it.
Can you make an audio book version?
So I looked into that and it costsa lot of money for little rewards.
So instead I'm doing this cheap podcast.
(00:37):
But before I ramble on and trust me, therewill be rambling for it's just me today.
Nobody to interrupt meor get me back on track.
So I hope you can follow me.
, as an aside, I saw Ross Noble in concert,the comedian last week, and my wife
said, that's you that is, and I pointedout that's a line from David Baddiel
(01:01):
anyway, my name is Alan Harrison,and I wrote the books how to teach
computer science and how to learncomputer science available in all
good bookstores and some bad ones.
And on Amazon and you can find moredetails at the companion website to the
books httcs.online That's the initials.
of How to teach computerscience, httcs.online I've got.
(01:23):
25 episodes planned
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
Which will take us upto the summer holidays.
And some fab guests booked in.
There will be parables practice andpedagogy and a lot of computer science
subject knowledge and jokes, probably andanecdotes and fun stuff like competitions
and prize draws, talking of jokes.
What's the problem with jokesabout the punchline often comes
(01:43):
too early race conditions.
That's a degree level, computerscience joke right there.
More where that camefrom you lucky people.
If you want to give me feedback,not on my jokes, please.
Or get involved, just go tohttcs.online or check the show
notes on your podcast player.
(02:04):
I'm
also
on threads Mastodon andX as mraharrison
That's M R a Harrison, or you canemail me at alan@httcs.Online.
I'd love to hear what youthink about this podcast.
And if you want to be aguest, just send me an email.
Or a message.
And if you like the content, pleasesubscribe and tell your friends
(02:25):
and buy my books at httcs.Online.
Leave a review of my books on Amazonor at the very least buy me a coffee.
I have a- tag on my Website and blogs sogo to httcs.online and bung me a few quid.
Because I'm not getting paid for this.
Okay.
So.
Every week, I will transcribethis recording as well and
(02:47):
blog it at httcs.online/blog.
So if you don't like my voice, youcan get your favorite text to speech
engine to read out my words., Youcan even go to Speechify to have
my words read by somebody else.
What up dog it's big snoop do double g, and I'm an English
voice from the United States
so if you really must have my words,read by Snoop Dogg, go to Speechify.
(03:09):
So let's get into today's podcast then,and let's start with a fertile question.
What's this all about then?
It's the podcast version of thebook, how to teach computer science.
This book that I wrote is for new oraspiring computer science teachers,
wishing to improve their subject knowledgeand gain confidence in the classroom.
(03:31):
And it's for experienced computer scienceteachers who wish to hone their practice.
Especially in the areas of explicitinstruction, tackling misconceptions and
exploring pedagogical content knowledge.
So trainee teachers.
And NQTs or ECTs.
will find this book, invaluable,experienced teachers will find it
inspiring and all would benefit froma fresh look at the hinterland and
(03:53):
pedagogy that makes computer sciencea fascinating subject to teach.
So go get the book.
If I haven't mentioned it, I wrote a book.
But today let's discuss pedagogyin more detail, a little bit about
PCK, pedagogical content knowledge.
Educational psychologist, Lee Shulmandefined PCK as quote knowledge of
the most regularly taught topics inone subject area, the most useful
(04:15):
forms of representation of thoseideas, the most powerful analogies,
illustrations, examples, explanations,and demonstrations end quote.
Thank you Mr.
Schulman.
It's that intersection of contentor subject knowledge and pedagogy.
PCK for computer science will be differentto that for maths, science, or history,
but may share some common features.
(04:37):
For example, the pedagogyof fertile questions
can be used in any subject.
What are fertile questions?
I'm glad you asked.
So you may know them as bigquestions or inquiry questions.
Fertile questions are intriguingquestions the teaching tries to
answer and they help to tie allthe lessons in a topic together.
As explained by Mark Enser in his TESarticle, are you asking fertile questions?
(05:00):
If not, you should be TES.com July, 2020.
And I quote this sense of intriguesparks my pupils natural curiosity.
The subject itself becomes engaging ratherthan an activity designed to hook them.
By phrasing each topic as afertile question to be answered.
I've been able to think more carefullyabout the disciplinary knowledge that
a geographer, because he's a geographyteacher would need in order to answer it.
(05:23):
I find myself asking what propositionaland procedural knowledge will they
have to bring to the question.
Rather than what can I teach tofill up the lessons this half term?
That's Mark Enser in tES.
And William Lau gives us some examples offertile questions for the architecture
chapter in his book, teaching computingin secondary schools copy here.
(05:48):
Next to the microphone.
And it's a fab book.
Inspired me to write mine.
And William says.
As an example, the architecturechapter could have a fertile question.
How can we design the fastestcomputer system in the world?
Now you see.
Phrasing a series of lessons asthe inquiry that will answer that
question will give structure tothe unit and motivation to find
(06:12):
out the answer to that question.
Individual lessons within thattopic could have fertile questions
such as why does my phone get hot?
And why does cooling speed it up?
Why do my phone and tablet boot inseconds while my desktop takes a minute?
Why are some manufacturers computersmore expensive than others?
Why did chip manufacturers stop increasingclock speeds and instead, add extra cores.
(06:35):
Why does magnetic storage still existif solid state drives are quicker.
So those questions can set the toneand the objectives for the lesson.
Once you've got your lesson plannedaround your fertile questions,
you can start to explain stuff.
And I'm a big fan of explanations.
One technique you might use isanalogy, always use good analogies.
(06:58):
Why?
Because a bad analogyis like a, Bad analogy.
Those of a certain age may remember thecomedy series Blackadder, famous for
terrible analogies, such as Baldrick.
There hasn't been a war run this badlysince Olaf the Hairy, King of all
the Vikings, ordered 80,000 battlehelmets with the horns on the inside.
(07:20):
But I digress.
I told you there'd be rambling.
Analogies help explainabstract ideas, using a similar
idea in a familiar concept.
Concrete examples exist in thereal world and put the learning
in context, connecting newcompeting ideas to other subjects.
Which helps pupils assimilate theminto their existing understanding.
Analogies can be used aspart of a semantic wave.
(07:41):
Also described as unplug, unpack repack.
So basically you might describean algorithm as a sequence
of steps to solve a problem.
Then slide down the semantic waveto a lower semantic gravity and
say algorithms are like a recipe.
Then go back up, repackinginto the algorithm concept.
Semantic waves are describedin an NCCE quick read and the
(08:02):
link is in the transcript onmy blog at httcs.online/blog.
Other pedagogies, unique to computinginclude unplugged and physical computing.
I have a whole episode of thispodcast planned to cover those.
So just for now, park your physicalcomputing enthusiasm on the stack,
and I'll pop it off in a few weeks.
(08:25):
Misconceptions can seriouslyhinder learner's progress.
I love a good misconception melike assignment statements make two
arguments equal, always, like inmathematical equations or peer to
peer networks require a mesh topology.
Studies have shown that teachers whoare aware of common misconceptions
and actively seek to address them.
are more effective.
That's Sadler et al 2013.
(08:46):
So.
You've got your misconceptions.
You've got your pedagogies.
What makes a good lesson?
And I think we really needto beef up our explanations.
I pride myself on my explanations.
So I wrote the book to helpyou explain things better.
My books clear descriptions of each topicand deep exploration of the hinterland
(09:08):
should enable teachers to explaintopics in great depth suitable for a
direct instruction approach to teaching.
Now I wasn't always a fanof direct instruction.
I was very much a progressiveteacher at the start of my career.
And I thought inquiry learningwas wonderful, and constructivism
and Constructionism.
That's Papert and everything, butthere's a limit to how much time
(09:31):
we can give them to discover things.
They're not really discovering.
They're just finding outstuff that we already know.
They're not small adults they're children.
True discovery.
comes after you've learned allof the substantive knowledge
that's already out there to learn.
And then, you know how to performthe discipline, of computer
(09:52):
science in our case, and thengo out and discover new things.
So discovery learningis a little overplayed.
I think children can't discovernew facts like scientists until
they've got that body of knowledge,so limit your inquiry learning and
don't get me started on Googling.
Googling is not inquiry learningand inquiry learning is.
(10:12):
Not always the best wayto get new facts across.
So.
Hone your explanations and tell thepupils most of the stuff they need to
know and let them practice using thatknowledge in a practical way, applying
that knowledge in the classroom.
I'm a big fan of pedagogical approachessuch as talk 4 writing from Pie
(10:32):
Corbett, children internalize thekey terms and language structures
needed to write knowledgeably aboutthe subject when teachers talk the text
confidently and model their thoughtprocesses, and explicitly teach the
specialist language of the subject.
So.
That's what I try to do.
I've always prided myself on myclear explanations and it's made
a great difference to my teaching.
For example, I might say a protocol is therules for communicating across a network.
(10:57):
But I might follow up with theword protocol in several other
sentences, such as, two computerscommunicate using the same protocol.
And without a protocol to describe therules, two computers cannot communicate.
These multiple examples help illuminatethe key tier three vocabulary so the
pupils can grasp and use it themselves.
(11:30):
that music means it's competition time.
So you can win a free copy of one ofmy books, how to teach computer science
or how to learn computer science.
Just for promoting this podcast.
You'll find a post from mepromoting the show on Threads,
Mastodon, LinkedIn and X.
Please like and reshare that postto spread the word and I will choose
(11:51):
one listener on each platform whohas done so to receive a free book.
The podcast is available onall major platforms and on
the web at, pod.HTTCS.online.
Okay.
Back to the serious stuff now.
We're talking about direct instruction.
(12:11):
I used direct instruction andother techniques described in the
book as part of a wider strategyof research informed teaching.
I use an approach that followsRosenshine's principles of instruction.
First published in 2012 and explained byTom Sherrington in his book, Rosen shines
principles in action, which I stronglyrecommend link on my blog at httcs.Online.
(12:33):
So much of the PCK advice in mybook is aimed at increasing what
teach like a champion author,Doug Lemov calls the ratios.
The ratios are explainedin a blog by Adam boxer.
And I recommend his blog and he's nowgot a podcast called they behave for
me with Amy Forester, which is a greatlisten and inspired me to do this.
(12:54):
So, what are the ratios?
Well, There's participation ratio.
How many of your students areparticipating and how often?
And the think ratio (13:02):
when they are participating, how hard are they thinking?
Increasing these ratios is importantbecause memory is the residue
of thought as Daniel Willinghamexplained in his excellent book
why don't students like school?
That book changed my teaching practiceentirely, it was my first introduction
to cognitive load theory and theimpact it has in the classroom.
(13:25):
Cognitive load theory isimportant for inclusion as well.
You can only hold so many newthings in your head at once
while you're thinking about them.
Pupils who find learning moredifficult will have perhaps
a smaller working memory.
So it's even more important to make sureyou understand cLT and working memory
(13:46):
and adapt your lessons accordingly.
adopting some or all of the PCKtechniques in my book would inherently
make your classroom more inclusive.
The activities suggested have a lowfloor wide walls and a high ceiling,
a phrase coined by Seymour Papert thatguided the development of scratch at MIT.
(14:07):
So reducing cognitive load cansupport send learners as Catherine
Elliott explains in her discussionof PRIMM.In HelloWorld 12.
I'm going to talk aboutPRIMM in a later podcast.
But as Catherine explains, a young personwith SEND or special educational needs or
disabilities can thus learn about the samecomputer science concepts as their peers,
(14:29):
without the fear of failure or the demandon working memory and recall that writing
a program from first principles involves.
So think about your programmingpedagogy, things like PRIMM, Parsons
problems and pair programming, allthe P's, they reduce cognitive load
and I'll be talking about them.
In a later podcast, but theyimprove inclusion in the classroom.
(14:54):
And I've got some tips in thebook from Beverley Clarke.
And she says, in HelloWorld 11,equitable computing would mean
experiences that are high quality interms of pedagogy and robust in terms
of nature and scope of learning goals.
Taking students beyond the curriculum.
Unplugged activities, physical computingand project work offer multiple means of
(15:15):
engagement, representation, action, andexpression recommended in the universal
design for learning, UDL framework.
Which was discussed in Hello world 15.
Hello world, of course, is a magazinepublished by the raspberry PI foundation.
And it's available for free PDF download.
And if you are a teacher, you cansubscribe to the print version
(15:36):
and have it drop on your doormat.
Talking of wide walls and a high ceilingas we were, I wrote a blog recently
called on banning 'I've finished!'.
(15:56):
And why did I do that?
Well, surely you want pupils tofinish their work in lesson time.
And if they finish early, what'sthe harm if they find something less
stressful to do like going onlineto play chess with their mates as a
teacher on Twitter told me recently thather pupils do when they're finished.
They were really into theirchess games, online with peers.
(16:17):
Oh they did do that.
And she got cross when the ITtechnicians blocked Chess.com.
So she then said, well, just go onYouTube when you're finished your work.
Well, allowing free time at the end ofthe lesson, encourages poor performance.
Many pupils rush the work toget it done in plenty of time
to play games or watch videos.
In my early career, I oftenresponded positively to the plea,
(16:39):
Sir, if we get finished early,can we go on cool math games?
But I learned that dangling that carrot offree time just ensured poor concentration.
A tendency to fill boxes onworksheets with the bare minimum and
importantly ensured a poor ratio.
Remember, that's the proportion ofpupil minutes, thinking hard about
the topic instead of other things.
(17:00):
Learning is its own reward in myclassroom, isn't that right, class?
Sir, yes, sir!
why would I deprive them of enjoyablelearning about our wonderful subject?
Why would I suggest that playing gamesis somehow more desirable than building
logic, circuits or learning to code?
Why would I do that?
So I have a poster on my classroom wallyou can see on my blog and it says.
(17:24):
ask your self, is this my best work?
Am I proud of this and then goeson to list some of the things that
I expect my pupils to do when theythink they've finished and they've
checked that it's their best work.
So at key stage four, they coulduse Quizlet, Seneca, or smart
revise from Craig and Dave, whichis an absolute game changer.
More on that story on myblog at the usual place.
(17:46):
httcs.online/blog.
I want to talk about animportant topic, gender balance.
And there's now a whole wealthof information available from the
NCCE under the I belong banner.
(18:07):
So go and have a look at that.
But the tips in the book were From CASoriginally, which were: Tip 1: women
can change the world, right throughoutkey stage three, make links to the
big picture and real-world computingroles, which have an ethical remit.
For example, designing assistivetechnologies to enable people to
overcome a disability or highlighttechnology's role in medicine,
(18:28):
humanitarian work, science, fashion,communications, art, journalism, or sport.
Another tip would be to encourage andpraise, and show that praise addresses
all aspects of learning computing,including creative solutions, planning,
and conceptual understanding as wellas technical knowledge and skills.
So make sure you're praisingthe effort, the progress.
(18:50):
You don't just judge your pupils by,have they finished a program that works.
Because all of the stages areimportant and encouraging resilience,
particularly among young people whodon't believe they belong in that
classroom is really, really important.
So.
There's an old adage about tech brosthat people think Silicon valley is
(19:11):
trying to make the world a betterplace, but really they're always just
trying to make better technology.
And this could really change ifwe get more women into technology.
I'm going to start closing out thispodcast now, not before another joke.
I was asked, can you writea joke about abstraction?
(19:33):
And I thought about it.
And I thought, yeah, I can do that.
Here's a joke about abstractionsetup(), setup(), setup() punch line().
So why did I write the book?
That we're talking about, howto teach computer science.
Well, The germ of an idea for the bookwas planted by a blog called signposting
the hinterland in which Tom Sherringtonhim again, explains that curriculum
(19:58):
can be divided into core and hinterlandwhere the hinterland is as important
as the core and serves the purpose ofincreasing depth niche details about a
particular area of study that deepen,enrich the core and increasing breadth.
wider surveys across the domainof any curriculum area that
helps to locate any specific coreelement within a wider frame.
Sherrington quotes from an earlierblog by Christine Counsell, which
(20:20):
said the core is like a residue.
The things that stay, the things thatcan be captured as proposition often such
things need to be committed to memory.
But if in certain subjects forthe purposes of teaching, We
reduce it to those propositions.
We may make it harder toteach and at worst we kill it.
What are they saying therewell, If you just teach.
(20:42):
Sequence selection and iteration.
But you don't understand programmingif you just teach the FOR loop
syntax., but you don't understandwhat a count controlled loop is
and if you haven't got a real graspof what the low level instructions
would do when you compile a for loop.
If you've got a good grasp of that,then you can really teach FOR loops or
(21:05):
iteration or programming much better.
So don't neglect the hinterland.
If you read my book, you will get muchmore sound grasp of the subject and
then you will be able to teach it well.
So the original aim of the book wasto assist computer science teachers in
sharing some of that hinterland withtheir students to enrich their studies and
(21:27):
cement core knowledge in a wider context.
. And so I wrote the book because I don't think the hinterland and the pedagogy
of our subject is well appreciated inthe classroom practitioner community.
(21:48):
By teachers basically.
So I decided to enhance the book,not just with hinterland, but
insight into research, making theconcepts accessible to teachers
with concrete, practical ideas.
That's why.
So.
Go and buy the book.
If you've bought it, pleasegive me a review on Amazon.
(22:08):
I have a learn book out as well,which is aimed at pupils so you could
buy class sets for your classroom.
And if you email me, alan@httcs.online.
I might give you a discount for a classset they're literally dirt cheap, because
I said to the publisher, I want thesebooks to be really affordable by the
classroom teacher it's my sort of gift.
(22:30):
If you like to.
Computing teaching community,which really is under appreciated.
So the.
How to teach computer sciencebook is priced at 15 pounds and
is cheaper than that on Amazon.
And the learn book is 12 pounds, butif you email me and you want a class
set, I can get a discount off that.
(22:51):
And you can give them to your learners.
this has been how toteach computer science.
The podcast.
And.
I hope we've answeredthe fertile question.
(23:12):
What's this all about then?
So remember the competition,share the love, share the podcast.
Next week I will be attempting.
The GCSE specification in 30minutes, I will talk through the
entire content of a typical computerscience GCSE in 30 minutes or less.
(23:34):
And I may have some more strange andinteresting jokes about computer science.
I'm Alan Harrison.
I'm on threads Mastodon and X asmraharrison And if you wondering
why I'm making that buzzer sound.
When I say X , just go and read myblog I've quit X and you should too.
(23:55):
So thanks for having me today.
This has been how to teachcomputer science, the podcast.
Please share the love andI'll speak to you next week.
welcome to how to teachcomputer science the podcast.
This is episode one.
What's this all about then?
Well, I've had a lot of people say tome, Alan, your book has been recommended
to me and it looks fantastic, butI just don't have time to read it.
Can you make an audio book version?
So I looked into that and it costsa lot of money for little rewards.
So instead I'm doing this cheap podcast.
(00:37):
But before I ramble on and trust me, therewill be rambling for it's just me today.
Nobody to interrupt meor get me back on track.
So I hope you can follow me.
, as an aside, I saw Ross Noble in concert,the comedian last week, and my wife
said, that's you that is, and I pointedout that's a line from David Baddiel
(01:01):
anyway, my name is Alan Harrison,and I wrote the books how to teach
computer science and how to learncomputer science available in all
good bookstores and some bad ones.
And on Amazon and you can find moredetails at the companion website to the
books httcs.online That's the initials.
of How to teach computerscience, httcs.online I've got.
(01:23):
25 episodes planned
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
Which will take us upto the summer holidays.
And some fab guests booked in.
There will be parables practice andpedagogy and a lot of computer science
subject knowledge and jokes, probably andanecdotes and fun stuff like competitions
and prize draws, talking of jokes.
What's the problem with jokesabout the punchline often comes
(01:43):
too early race conditions.
That's a degree level, computerscience joke right there.
More where that camefrom you lucky people.
If you want to give me feedback,not on my jokes, please.
Or get involved, just go tohttcs.online or check the show
notes on your podcast player.
(02:04):
I'm
also
on threads Mastodon andX as mraharrison
That's M R a Harrison, or you canemail me at alan@httcs.Online.
I'd love to hear what youthink about this podcast.
And if you want to be aguest, just send me an email.
Or a message.
And if you like the content, pleasesubscribe and tell your friends
(02:25):
and buy my books at httcs.Online.
Leave a review of my books on Amazonor at the very least buy me a coffee.
I have a- tag on my Website and blogs sogo to httcs.online and bung me a few quid.
Because I'm not getting paid for this.
Okay.
So.
Every week, I will transcribethis recording as well and
(02:47):
blog it at httcs.online/blog.
So if you don't like my voice, youcan get your favorite text to speech
engine to read out my words., Youcan even go to Speechify to have
my words read by somebody else.
What up dog it's big snoop do double g, and I'm an English
voice from the United States
so if you really must have my words,read by Snoop Dogg, go to Speechify.
(03:09):
So let's get into today's podcast then,and let's start with a fertile question.
What's this all about then?
It's the podcast version of thebook, how to teach computer science.
This book that I wrote is for new oraspiring computer science teachers,
wishing to improve their subject knowledgeand gain confidence in the classroom.
(03:31):
And it's for experienced computer scienceteachers who wish to hone their practice.
Especially in the areas of explicitinstruction, tackling misconceptions and
exploring pedagogical content knowledge.
So trainee teachers.
And NQTs or ECTs.
will find this book, invaluable,experienced teachers will find it
inspiring and all would benefit froma fresh look at the hinterland and
(03:53):
pedagogy that makes computer sciencea fascinating subject to teach.
So go get the book.
If I haven't mentioned it, I wrote a book.
But today let's discuss pedagogyin more detail, a little bit about
PCK, pedagogical content knowledge.
Educational psychologist, Lee Shulmandefined PCK as quote knowledge of
the most regularly taught topics inone subject area, the most useful
(04:15):
forms of representation of thoseideas, the most powerful analogies,
illustrations, examples, explanations,and demonstrations end quote.
Thank you Mr.
Schulman.
It's that intersection of contentor subject knowledge and pedagogy.
PCK for computer science will be differentto that for maths, science, or history,
but may share some common features.
(04:37):
For example, the pedagogyof fertile questions
can be used in any subject.
What are fertile questions?
I'm glad you asked.
So you may know them as bigquestions or inquiry questions.
Fertile questions are intriguingquestions the teaching tries to
answer and they help to tie allthe lessons in a topic together.
As explained by Mark Enser in his TESarticle, are you asking fertile questions?
(05:00):
If not, you should be TES.com July, 2020.
And I quote this sense of intriguesparks my pupils natural curiosity.
The subject itself becomes engaging ratherthan an activity designed to hook them.
By phrasing each topic as afertile question to be answered.
I've been able to think more carefullyabout the disciplinary knowledge that
a geographer, because he's a geographyteacher would need in order to answer it.
(05:23):
I find myself asking what propositionaland procedural knowledge will they
have to bring to the question.
Rather than what can I teach tofill up the lessons this half term?
That's Mark Enser in tES.
And William Lau gives us some examples offertile questions for the architecture
chapter in his book, teaching computingin secondary schools copy here.
(05:48):
Next to the microphone.
And it's a fab book.
Inspired me to write mine.
And William says.
As an example, the architecturechapter could have a fertile question.
How can we design the fastestcomputer system in the world?
Now you see.
Phrasing a series of lessons asthe inquiry that will answer that
question will give structure tothe unit and motivation to find
(06:12):
out the answer to that question.
Individual lessons within thattopic could have fertile questions
such as why does my phone get hot?
And why does cooling speed it up?
Why do my phone and tablet boot inseconds while my desktop takes a minute?
Why are some manufacturers computersmore expensive than others?
Why did chip manufacturers stop increasingclock speeds and instead, add extra cores.
(06:35):
Why does magnetic storage still existif solid state drives are quicker.
So those questions can set the toneand the objectives for the lesson.
Once you've got your lesson plannedaround your fertile questions,
you can start to explain stuff.
And I'm a big fan of explanations.
One technique you might use isanalogy, always use good analogies.
(06:58):
Why?
Because a bad analogyis like a, Bad analogy.
Those of a certain age may remember thecomedy series Blackadder, famous for
terrible analogies, such as Baldrick.
There hasn't been a war run this badlysince Olaf the Hairy, King of all
the Vikings, ordered 80,000 battlehelmets with the horns on the inside.
(07:20):
But I digress.
I told you there'd be rambling.
Analogies help explainabstract ideas, using a similar
idea in a familiar concept.
Concrete examples exist in thereal world and put the learning
in context, connecting newcompeting ideas to other subjects.
Which helps pupils assimilate theminto their existing understanding.
Analogies can be used aspart of a semantic wave.
(07:41):
Also described as unplug, unpack repack.
So basically you might describean algorithm as a sequence
of steps to solve a problem.
Then slide down the semantic waveto a lower semantic gravity and
say algorithms are like a recipe.
Then go back up, repackinginto the algorithm concept.
Semantic waves are describedin an NCCE quick read and the
(08:02):
link is in the transcript onmy blog at httcs.online/blog.
Other pedagogies, unique to computinginclude unplugged and physical computing.
I have a whole episode of thispodcast planned to cover those.
So just for now, park your physicalcomputing enthusiasm on the stack,
and I'll pop it off in a few weeks.
(08:25):
Misconceptions can seriouslyhinder learner's progress.
I love a good misconception melike assignment statements make two
arguments equal, always, like inmathematical equations or peer to
peer networks require a mesh topology.
Studies have shown that teachers whoare aware of common misconceptions
and actively seek to address them.
are more effective.
That's Sadler et al 2013.
(08:46):
So.
You've got your misconceptions.
You've got your pedagogies.
What makes a good lesson?
And I think we really needto beef up our explanations.
I pride myself on my explanations.
So I wrote the book to helpyou explain things better.
My books clear descriptions of each topicand deep exploration of the hinterland
(09:08):
should enable teachers to explaintopics in great depth suitable for a
direct instruction approach to teaching.
Now I wasn't always a fanof direct instruction.
I was very much a progressiveteacher at the start of my career.
And I thought inquiry learningwas wonderful, and constructivism
and Constructionism.
That's Papert and everything, butthere's a limit to how much time
(09:31):
we can give them to discover things.
They're not really discovering.
They're just finding outstuff that we already know.
They're not small adults they're children.
True discovery.
comes after you've learned allof the substantive knowledge
that's already out there to learn.
And then, you know how to performthe discipline, of computer
(09:52):
science in our case, and thengo out and discover new things.
So discovery learningis a little overplayed.
I think children can't discovernew facts like scientists until
they've got that body of knowledge,so limit your inquiry learning and
don't get me started on Googling.
Googling is not inquiry learningand inquiry learning is.
(10:12):
Not always the best wayto get new facts across.
So.
Hone your explanations and tell thepupils most of the stuff they need to
know and let them practice using thatknowledge in a practical way, applying
that knowledge in the classroom.
I'm a big fan of pedagogical approachessuch as talk 4 writing from Pie
(10:32):
Corbett, children internalize thekey terms and language structures
needed to write knowledgeably aboutthe subject when teachers talk the text
confidently and model their thoughtprocesses, and explicitly teach the
specialist language of the subject.
So.
That's what I try to do.
I've always prided myself on myclear explanations and it's made
a great difference to my teaching.
For example, I might say a protocol is therules for communicating across a network.
(10:57):
But I might follow up with theword protocol in several other
sentences, such as, two computerscommunicate using the same protocol.
And without a protocol to describe therules, two computers cannot communicate.
These multiple examples help illuminatethe key tier three vocabulary so the
pupils can grasp and use it themselves.
(11:30):
that music means it's competition time.
So you can win a free copy of one ofmy books, how to teach computer science
or how to learn computer science.
Just for promoting this podcast.
You'll find a post from mepromoting the show on Threads,
Mastodon, LinkedIn and X.
Please like and reshare that postto spread the word and I will choose
(11:51):
one listener on each platform whohas done so to receive a free book.
The podcast is available onall major platforms and on
the web at, pod.HTTCS.online.
Okay.
Back to the serious stuff now.
We're talking about direct instruction.
(12:11):
I used direct instruction andother techniques described in the
book as part of a wider strategyof research informed teaching.
I use an approach that followsRosenshine's principles of instruction.
First published in 2012 and explained byTom Sherrington in his book, Rosen shines
principles in action, which I stronglyrecommend link on my blog at httcs.Online.
(12:33):
So much of the PCK advice in mybook is aimed at increasing what
teach like a champion author,Doug Lemov calls the ratios.
The ratios are explainedin a blog by Adam boxer.
And I recommend his blog and he's nowgot a podcast called they behave for
me with Amy Forester, which is a greatlisten and inspired me to do this.
(12:54):
So, what are the ratios?
Well, There's participation ratio.
How many of your students areparticipating and how often?
And the think ratio (13:02):
when they are participating, how hard are they thinking?
Increasing these ratios is importantbecause memory is the residue
of thought as Daniel Willinghamexplained in his excellent book
why don't students like school?
That book changed my teaching practiceentirely, it was my first introduction
to cognitive load theory and theimpact it has in the classroom.
(13:25):
Cognitive load theory isimportant for inclusion as well.
You can only hold so many newthings in your head at once
while you're thinking about them.
Pupils who find learning moredifficult will have perhaps
a smaller working memory.
So it's even more important to make sureyou understand cLT and working memory
(13:46):
and adapt your lessons accordingly.
adopting some or all of the PCKtechniques in my book would inherently
make your classroom more inclusive.
The activities suggested have a lowfloor wide walls and a high ceiling,
a phrase coined by Seymour Papert thatguided the development of scratch at MIT.
(14:07):
So reducing cognitive load cansupport send learners as Catherine
Elliott explains in her discussionof PRIMM.In HelloWorld 12.
I'm going to talk aboutPRIMM in a later podcast.
But as Catherine explains, a young personwith SEND or special educational needs or
disabilities can thus learn about the samecomputer science concepts as their peers,
(14:29):
without the fear of failure or the demandon working memory and recall that writing
a program from first principles involves.
So think about your programmingpedagogy, things like PRIMM, Parsons
problems and pair programming, allthe P's, they reduce cognitive load
and I'll be talking about them.
In a later podcast, but theyimprove inclusion in the classroom.
(14:54):
And I've got some tips in thebook from Beverley Clarke.
And she says, in HelloWorld 11,equitable computing would mean
experiences that are high quality interms of pedagogy and robust in terms
of nature and scope of learning goals.
Taking students beyond the curriculum.
Unplugged activities, physical computingand project work offer multiple means of
(15:15):
engagement, representation, action, andexpression recommended in the universal
design for learning, UDL framework.
Which was discussed in Hello world 15.
Hello world, of course, is a magazinepublished by the raspberry PI foundation.
And it's available for free PDF download.
And if you are a teacher, you cansubscribe to the print version
(15:36):
and have it drop on your doormat.
Talking of wide walls and a high ceilingas we were, I wrote a blog recently
called on banning 'I've finished!'.
(15:56):
And why did I do that?
Well, surely you want pupils tofinish their work in lesson time.
And if they finish early, what'sthe harm if they find something less
stressful to do like going onlineto play chess with their mates as a
teacher on Twitter told me recently thather pupils do when they're finished.
They were really into theirchess games, online with peers.
(16:17):
Oh they did do that.
And she got cross when the ITtechnicians blocked Chess.com.
So she then said, well, just go onYouTube when you're finished your work.
Well, allowing free time at the end ofthe lesson, encourages poor performance.
Many pupils rush the work toget it done in plenty of time
to play games or watch videos.
In my early career, I oftenresponded positively to the plea,
(16:39):
Sir, if we get finished early,can we go on cool math games?
But I learned that dangling that carrot offree time just ensured poor concentration.
A tendency to fill boxes onworksheets with the bare minimum and
importantly ensured a poor ratio.
Remember, that's the proportion ofpupil minutes, thinking hard about
the topic instead of other things.
(17:00):
Learning is its own reward in myclassroom, isn't that right, class?
Sir, yes, sir!
why would I deprive them of enjoyablelearning about our wonderful subject?
Why would I suggest that playing gamesis somehow more desirable than building
logic, circuits or learning to code?
Why would I do that?
So I have a poster on my classroom wallyou can see on my blog and it says.
(17:24):
ask your self, is this my best work?
Am I proud of this and then goeson to list some of the things that
I expect my pupils to do when theythink they've finished and they've
checked that it's their best work.
So at key stage four, they coulduse Quizlet, Seneca, or smart
revise from Craig and Dave, whichis an absolute game changer.
More on that story on myblog at the usual place.
(17:46):
httcs.online/blog.
I want to talk about animportant topic, gender balance.
And there's now a whole wealthof information available from the
NCCE under the I belong banner.
(18:07):
So go and have a look at that.
But the tips in the book were From CASoriginally, which were: Tip 1: women
can change the world, right throughoutkey stage three, make links to the
big picture and real-world computingroles, which have an ethical remit.
For example, designing assistivetechnologies to enable people to
overcome a disability or highlighttechnology's role in medicine,
(18:28):
humanitarian work, science, fashion,communications, art, journalism, or sport.
Another tip would be to encourage andpraise, and show that praise addresses
all aspects of learning computing,including creative solutions, planning,
and conceptual understanding as wellas technical knowledge and skills.
So make sure you're praisingthe effort, the progress.
(18:50):
You don't just judge your pupils by,have they finished a program that works.
Because all of the stages areimportant and encouraging resilience,
particularly among young people whodon't believe they belong in that
classroom is really, really important.
So.
There's an old adage about tech brosthat people think Silicon valley is
(19:11):
trying to make the world a betterplace, but really they're always just
trying to make better technology.
And this could really change ifwe get more women into technology.
I'm going to start closing out thispodcast now, not before another joke.
I was asked, can you writea joke about abstraction?
(19:33):
And I thought about it.
And I thought, yeah, I can do that.
Here's a joke about abstractionsetup(), setup(), setup() punch line().
So why did I write the book?
That we're talking about, howto teach computer science.
Well, The germ of an idea for the bookwas planted by a blog called signposting
the hinterland in which Tom Sherringtonhim again, explains that curriculum
(19:58):
can be divided into core and hinterlandwhere the hinterland is as important
as the core and serves the purpose ofincreasing depth niche details about a
particular area of study that deepen,enrich the core and increasing breadth.
wider surveys across the domainof any curriculum area that
helps to locate any specific coreelement within a wider frame.
Sherrington quotes from an earlierblog by Christine Counsell, which
(20:20):
said the core is like a residue.
The things that stay, the things thatcan be captured as proposition often such
things need to be committed to memory.
But if in certain subjects forthe purposes of teaching, We
reduce it to those propositions.
We may make it harder toteach and at worst we kill it.
What are they saying therewell, If you just teach.
(20:42):
Sequence selection and iteration.
But you don't understand programmingif you just teach the FOR loop
syntax., but you don't understandwhat a count controlled loop is
and if you haven't got a real graspof what the low level instructions
would do when you compile a for loop.
If you've got a good grasp of that,then you can really teach FOR loops or
(21:05):
iteration or programming much better.
So don't neglect the hinterland.
If you read my book, you will get muchmore sound grasp of the subject and
then you will be able to teach it well.
So the original aim of the book wasto assist computer science teachers in
sharing some of that hinterland withtheir students to enrich their studies and
(21:27):
cement core knowledge in a wider context.
. And so I wrote the book because I don't think the hinterland and the pedagogy
of our subject is well appreciated inthe classroom practitioner community.
(21:48):
By teachers basically.
So I decided to enhance the book,not just with hinterland, but
insight into research, making theconcepts accessible to teachers
with concrete, practical ideas.
That's why.
So.
Go and buy the book.
If you've bought it, pleasegive me a review on Amazon.
(22:08):
I have a learn book out as well,which is aimed at pupils so you could
buy class sets for your classroom.
And if you email me, alan@httcs.online.
I might give you a discount for a classset they're literally dirt cheap, because
I said to the publisher, I want thesebooks to be really affordable by the
classroom teacher it's my sort of gift.
(22:30):
If you like to.
Computing teaching community,which really is under appreciated.
So the.
How to teach computer sciencebook is priced at 15 pounds and
is cheaper than that on Amazon.
And the learn book is 12 pounds, butif you email me and you want a class
set, I can get a discount off that.
(22:51):
And you can give them to your learners.
this has been how toteach computer science.
The podcast.
And.
I hope we've answeredthe fertile question.
(23:12):
What's this all about then?
So remember the competition,share the love, share the podcast.
Next week I will be attempting.
The GCSE specification in 30minutes, I will talk through the
entire content of a typical computerscience GCSE in 30 minutes or less.
(23:34):
And I may have some more strange andinteresting jokes about computer science.
I'm Alan Harrison.
I'm on threads Mastodon and X asmraharrison And if you wondering
why I'm making that buzzer sound.
When I say X , just go and read myblog I've quit X and you should too.
(23:55):
So thanks for having me today.
This has been how to teachcomputer science, the podcast.
Please share the love andI'll speak to you next week.
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