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INDUSTRY WATCH
GIVING STUDENTS THE
CONFIDENCE TO MAKE
MISTAKES WHEN THEY
ARE LEARNING TO WRITE
COMPUTER CODE COULD
ENABLE THEM TO BECOME
MORE SUCCESSFUL
CODERS, RESEARCH FROM
GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY
OF LONDON SUGGESTS.
research project, to examine how the students
were learning to code; analysing whether
they pressed different keys, which blocks of
different functionality they used and whether
they used advanced tor simple techniques.
The system, developed by the team over
several years, keeps detailed data about how
students approach a programming task which
brings into sharp relief the tactics they take
on when learning; something that has not
previously been possible.
After each session, the students completed a
survey rating the experience for factors such
as ‘creativity’, ‘motivation’ and ‘learning’.
After all 12 lessons they then carried out
a coding project of their own devising and
were graded by two tutors based on a
presentation and the technical and aesthetic
quality of the work.
Dr Matthew Yee-King, Lecturer in Computing,
said: “Our results suggest that students
www.intelligentcio.com
who are making more mistakes, almost
deliberately, are actually solving problems
more reliably.
“When we set them a more constrained
problem, we found that they are doing much
less exploratory coding.”
Dr Mick Grierson, Reader in Computer,
said: “We need to do more studies to find
out how effective this method really is but
from our early results it does appear that
this process of creative exploration leads to
better results. We hope this new approach
might see more and more creative people
at the centre of technology development
which will make this development more
creative and more human.”
Professor d’Inverno commented: “What is
particularly exciting is that we can see that
students learn quite differently in a more
arts-inflected pedagogy than a traditional
engineering one. And the approach of the
former is that they are much happier to try
things out, just like the artist, they are not
under pressure to come to some notion of
‘the right solution’ but they have a clearer
overall sense of what they do want to achieve.
“Not only can we actually see this precisely in
our data, we can also see that the students
who approach a problem with a more arts-
inflicted approach do better in their final mark.
“It is often very hard to get a clear
understanding of precisely what changes
when we talk about STEAM over more
traditional approaches and clear evidence
of the benefits. What we really need at
Goldsmiths is more stories that really do
show the true value of STEAM – where the
A covers Arts, Design, Humanities, Social
Sciences and Entrepreneurial thinking – and
it would be great to hear from anyone with a
STEAM story to tell.” n
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