Teaching Programming Strategies Explicitly to Novice Programmers. Can the way we teach strategies improve novice outcomes?

Typically itБЂ™s in the context of a code review where IБЂ™ll get some code to review and thereБЂ™ll be a lot of changes and IБЂ™ll say, БЂњWhy donБЂ™t we just sit together at a machine and bash it into shape?БЂ«ThatБЂ™s good for a whole bunch of reasons. I think itБЂ™s a great way to teach, to pass knowledge down from one generation of hacker to the next. I donБЂ™t like working in total isolation. When IБЂ™m writing a program and I come to a tricky design decision, I just have to bounce it off someone else. At every place IБЂ™ve worked, IБЂ™ve had one or more colleagues I could bounce ideas off of. ThatБЂ™s critically important for me; I need that feedback. Seibel: Is that for the feedback you get or just for the chance to talk it through? Bloch: Both. ThereБЂ™s so much craft in what we doБЂ”itБЂ™s often the case that thereБЂ™s no one right solution, or if there is, itБЂ™s not apparent until youБЂ™ve used it. You have to go from the gut and talking to someone with a different perspective can be very helpful ...»