[Jprogramming] J v Python

[Devon McCormick]

As for using J to teach students (presumably we're talking about elementary
to high-school level), I think my exposure to APL in junior high-school
(age 13) helped me better understand matrix math concepts when they were
introduced in high-school.


On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Raul Miller <rauldmiller at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 5:01 PM, Boyko Bantchev <boykobb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I also know many people who teach mathematics or informatics at
> > school, at different places and certainly to students with average
> > (or below) mathematical abilities.  My wife has been a school teacher
> > in mathematics for years.  Neither my experience nor that of all those
> > people, or that of our students shows problems with the notation.
> > A person may be good at mathematics or similar subjects, or not, but
> > this has nothing to do with notation.
>
>
> http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=485225&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffd.xuwubk.eu.org%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D485225
>
> "A small experiment in reading specifications revealed that students
> already trained in discrete mathematics and the specification notation
> performed very poorly; much worse than could reasonably be expected if
> formal methods proponents are to be believed"
>
>
> http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327809jls1302_1
>
> "Contrary to beliefs held by practitioners and researchers in
> mathematics education, students were more successful solving simple
> algebra story problems than solving mathematically equivalent
> equations."
>
>
> http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/clement-low.pdf
>
> "The fact that fewer than 50 percent of these students could solve the
> problems indicates the difficulty of translating into and out of
> algebraic notation."
>
>
> http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/papers/redish/talks/aapt96m.htm
>
> "Some students have trouble figuring out what are variables and what
> are constants in this expression."
>
>
> Also of note:
>
> http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/learning.html
>
> http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~schectex/commerrs/
>
>
> http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27962524?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101429087833
>
>
> http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40248161?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101429087833
>
>
> > This is supported by observing that, to my best knowledge, notation
> > is not among the issues raised in articles, at conferences, etc.
> > where the problems of education are observed.
>
> Hopefully my few minutes of effort here have done something to rectify
> this gap in this part of your knowledge?
>
> --
> Raul
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
>



-- 
Devon McCormick, CFA
^me^ at acm.
org is my
preferred e-mail