Feeling disadvantaged in CS courses at University of XXX

Even at Berkeley, the home of the great course emphasizing CS teaching for everyone, The Beauty and Joy of Computing, there are students who don’t feel that they belong in CS.  See the post quoted and linked below.

Of course, the story below is not about Berkeley.  This is about the slow pace of change, and how difficult it is to get whole CS departments to buy into the vision of “CS for All.”

CS 61A was a completely different story.

Last fall, I had the opportunity to work as a lab assistant for Data 8: “Foundations of Data Science,” and I couldn’t help but notice the difference in atmosphere between the students in Data 8 and my own experience in CS 61A.

Data 8 is one of the alternative courses offered for UC Berkeley students who are new programmers. Data 8 and CS 10: “The Beauty and Joy of Computing” are offered to students who want to test the waters of programming before jumping into 61A.

Data 8 uses Python, just like 61A. But the concepts are taught more slowly so new programmers can really understand how to use these concepts properly in their code.

Source: Column | Feeling disadvantaged in CS courses at UC Berkeley