Craft
exceptional
Code;

Approach

Pedagogy: the art, method and practice of teaching.

When courses emphasize topic scope without regard to pedagogical approach, the result is a grab bag that entertains the learner rather than educates. This model cripples developers in both the workplace and classroom.

Over the last ten years of training developers, I’ve iterated on a pedagogical approach that blends industry-leading best practices with a highly collaborative learning environment:

• Failure is the most effective teacher. Therefore, provide an environment that rewards failure and fearless curiosity.
• A teacher is a learning facilitator. Therefore, facilitate self-discovery and follow with reinforcement.
• Active learning is hard. Therefore, teach and apply one concept at a time to minimize cognitive load and promote contextual learning.
• Exhaustive knowledge has a brief shelf life. Therefore, emphasize best practices and transmutable concepts over comprehensive scope.
• Quality is inversely proportional to length. Therefore, be concise: it’s kindness in practice.
• Learners are infinitely intelligent. Therefore, exercise their ability to generalize concepts and apply in new contexts.
• Blatant magic hinders the learner. Therefore, avoid or dispel magic by first building it from scratch.
• Premature abstraction produces impractical code. Therefore, only derive the abstract after the concrete.
• Topics can be learned quickly; intuition takes a lifetime. Therefore, aim to transfer intuition — not concepts.

Like a well-designed app, good pedagogy becomes a transparent part of the learning process by removing obstacles to learning — including itself.