TITLE: Skills We Can Learn
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 02, 2014  3:46 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
In a thread on motivating students on the SIGCSE mailing list,
a longtime CS prof and textbook author wrote:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Over the years, I have come to believe that those of us who
 can become successful programmers have different internal
 wiring than most in the population.  We know you need
 problem solving, mathematical, and intellectual skills but
 beyond that you need to be persistent, diligent, patient,
 and willing to deal with failure and learn from it.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

These are necessary skills, indeed.  Many of our students
come to us without these skills and struggle to learn how to
think like a computer scientist.  And without persistence,
diligence, patience, and a willingness to deal with failure
and learn from it, anyone will likely have a difficult time
learning to program.

Over time, it's natural to begin to think that these attributes
are prerequisites -- things a person must have before he or she
can learn to write programs.  But I think that's wrong.

As someone else pointed out in the thread, too many people
believe that to succeed in certain disciplines, one must be
gifted, to possess an inherent talent for doing that kind of
thing.  Science, math, and computer science fit firmly in that
set of disciplines for most people.  Carol Dweck has shown
that having such a "fixed" mindset of this sort prevents many
people from sticking with these disciplines when they hit
challenges, or even trying to learn them in the first place.

The attitude expressed in the quote above is counterproductive
for teachers, whose job it is to help students learn things even
when the students don't think they can.

When I talk to my students, I acknowledge that, to succeed in CS,
 you need to be persistent, diligent, patient, and willing to
deal with failure and learn from it.  But I approach these
attributes from a growth mindset:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Persistence, diligence, patience, and willingness to learn from
 failure are habits anyone can develop with practice.  Students
 can develop these habits regardless of their natural gifts or
 their previous education.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Aristotle said that excellence is not an act, but a habit.  So
are most of the attributes we need to succeed in CS.  They are
habits, not traits we are born with or actions we take.

Donald Knuth once said that only about 2 per cent of the
population "resonates" with programming the way he does.  That
may be true.  But even if most of us will never be part of
Knuth's 2%, we can all develop the habits we need to program at
a basic level.  And a lot more than 2% are capable of building
successful careers in the discipline.
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