Colleen Van Lent, a lecturer at U-M and an instructor at Web Design for Everybody, outlines four common pitfalls that new programmers face:
- A lack of confidence.
- Hesitance about putting in the time to learn about and utilize a good editor.
- Viewing setbacks as failures rather than commonplace events.
- Seeking out the wrong kind of help with questions.
“A new programmer should be given the time to do small programs using the language of their choice,” writes van Lent. “Unfortunately, instead of hearing positive encouragement, new programmers are often told that their problem choice, language choice, editor choice, and/or general approach to learning is all wrong and they should do x, y, and z instead.”
