Section 1.5 Growth mindset and pair programming
Learning to code can be hard at times and sometimes frustrating. However, the feeling you get when your code works is incredible! And your brain grows as you problem solve and debug your programs!
Two ideas that can help get through those moments of frustration are remembering to develop a growth mindset and putting your brain together with a partner in a structure called pair programming.
Subsection 1.5.1 Growth mindset
The basic idea of a growth mindset (which you may well have heard about before in school as it’s a very popular idea and not specific to programming) is that none of our capabilities are fixed and we can improve at the things we practice. That means when something seems hard it’s just because we haven’t mastered it yet. And conversely, when something seems easy for someone else it’s because they have, not because they’re just naturally good at it.
To practice using a growth mindset, if you find yourself saying or thinking what’s in the left column, try substituting what’s in the right column instead:
| Instead of thinking/saying | Try thinking/saying |
|---|---|
| I’m not good at this. | I can learn to do this. |
| I’m awesome at this. | I’m on the right track. |
| I give up. | I’ll use a different learning strategy. |
| This is too hard. | This may take some time and effort. |
| I can’t make this any better | I can improve it! |
| I just can’t do programming. | I’m going to train my brain to do this. |
| Plan A didn’t work. | Let’s try something else. |
| It’s good enough. | How can I improve this? |
Subsection 1.5.2 Pair Programming
In this curriculum, you are encouraged to work together in pairs to complete the coding challenges. Pair programming is a successful software development technique where two programmers work together at one computer. One, the driver, types in code while the other, the navigator, gives ideas and feedback. The two coders switch roles frequently. You can also try buddy programming where each person uses their own computer but both help each other while coding. The advantages of pair programming are that two heads are better than one, and pairs usually produce better code with less roadblocks. As future software developers, it’s also important to learn to work in teams.
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