How learning python helped me teach C in tertiary education
2020-09-04 , Flip Floperator Pavillion

Before I went to uni - I had around 8 years of python experience, and so I thought learning C would be trivial, and was excited to move on from C back to python. However, it was much more difficult than I expected! There were areas in C that were super easy to grasp thanks to my python experience, but there were areas that were harder to grasp as a result of of my python experience...

Now I'm a tutor for the university teaching C! I now ask the question - is teaching C better than teaching Python for formal CS education?


This talk is simply one about my experience of learning C from a python background
- what python features helped me understand C better (control flow, algorithm and problem breakdown design, functions, etc)
- what C features helped me understand python better (ie pointers in C helped me understand python lists, etc)
- how I use my python knowledge to teach C at University

It's my first time giving a talk at a conference, what do I put here? I suppose I should mention:
- COMP1511 Tutor @ UNSW
- Computer Science Student @ UNSW
- Love to volunteer - currently actively involved in 3 running societies @ UNSW

I've been playing with computers for quite some time, and have had the pleasure of teaching a wide ranges of year-groups a wide ranges of subjects - from teaching 7 year olds how to add, to 24 year olds writing their first "Hello World" program