Overcoming Coding Anxiety: Lowering the Stakes and Making It Fun

Tiago A. Marques; William P. Kay; Christopher Aldous Oldnall; Chris Sutherland; Robert S. Young

doi:10.2218/ED.9781836450795

Overcoming Coding Anxiety: Lowering the Stakes and Making It Fun

Authors

Tiago A. Marques

Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa; Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews

William P. Kay

School of Biosciences, Cardiff University

Christopher Aldous Oldnall

School of Mathematics and Maxwell Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh; Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh

Chris Sutherland

Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews

Robert S. Young

Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh; Zhejiang University - University of Edinburgh (ZJE) Institute

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2218/ED.9781836450795.16

Synopsis

For many students, anxiety is a central and paralysing part of their coding experience. This is particularly true for students in non-programming disciplines where educators may need to make a targeted effort to approach this head on. The authors offer practical suggestions and tips provided from their experiences that you can easily pick up and embed out of the box in your own teaching.

This chapter is for you if you have ever taught coding to anxious students or would like ideas on ways to make your programming course more accessible and fun for all students, regardless of background.