In this article I’m going to introduce a series of articles that will present a different way to teach beginning Python programming. My approach is to teach the language as a means of implementing a set of programming templates that describe specific functions that a program can perform rather than the syntax of a particular construct.

Most computer programming textbooks are organized around syntax and programming constructs. A textbook will start with how to form variables, move to forming statements, often by introducing arithmetic, then move to input and output, then to branching, then to looping, then to functions, and finally a section or two on data structures. Problems are presented but primarily as a means of showcasing the programming construct at hand.

By introducing constructs via programming templates, the learner sees why a specific construct is needed for implementing that template, which is designed to get some job accomplished. The learner is taught computer programming the way it should be taught, as the means to solve problems, rather than just as a collection of syntactic forms.

#learn-to-program #python #programming templates