Abstract
The principles of programming language design for learning and teaching have been described and discussed for several decades. Most influential was the work of Niklaus Wirth, describing principles such as simplicity, modularity, orthogonality and readability. So why is this still an area of fundamental disagreement among educators? Why can teachers still not agree on suitable languages for novice programming? Why do we not have a programming language that is designed for education and in widespread use across the world? This paper enumerates and describes educational language design principles in the context of current systems and technologies and discusses why interpretation of these principles shifts as our discipline progresses. We evaluate what these principles mean in our current world, and why a common agreement has not developed. We discuss the relative benefits of pedagogical languages vs industry languages and articulate why every generation of learners need their own language.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 823 |
| Number of pages | 836 |
| Journal | Informatics in Education |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Dec 2024 |
Keywords
- programming education
- programming language design
- programming pedagogy
