Tutoring Dos and Donts

Unofficial alien of CS 5 Gold

Unofficial alien of CS 5 Black

Unofficial turtle of CS 5 Green

Unofficial alien of CS 42

Official sponsor of this presentation

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Thank you!

Gracias!Merci!

Danke!

Grutoring Overview

• Black and Gold have shared labs, some shared assignments, and shared tutoring hours

• Green has its own labs, few shared assignments, and some dedicated tutoring hours

• CS 42 and CS 60 have tutoring times, but no scheduled labs

• but… we’re all in this together!

Grading: Thursday nights at 10pm

We’ll start on 9/8!

½ - please bring laptops!

Show submissions…

• Please “make the rounds”• Ask “how are you doing?”• Try to avoid “camping out” at

your own computer• Try to avoid being “taken

hostage”

In lab/tutoring hours…

Help students help themselves• Don’t...

– Say “Oh, I see your problem! Just change this here…”• Do…

– Ask “What kind of error are you getting?”– Help explain the error message and how it might be helpful– Suggest debugging strategies (more on this on this in a moment)– Ask “Do these strategies sound good to you? Let me let you work on

this a bit and I’ll come back in a few minutes to see how you’re doing.”– In some (rare) cases is it good to reveal the problem directly

• Student is very frustrated after repeated efforts• You are very frustrated after repeated efforts• You are besieged with questions and need to do triage

Some debugging strategies

• Look at the error messages and try to explain what they are saying

• Test each function independently before moving on– Test on small values that can be “hand verified”– Test on “edge cases”

• Use print statements• Use the interpreter

If the problem is conceptual…

• Back away from the keyboard

• If you don’t feel comfortable explaining the concept, see if you can switch places with another grutor – or send the student to one of the profs

If you don’t know the answer…

It’s OK!

Admit it -- a great thing to say: I don’t know…but let’s figure it out!

Model problem-solving and debugging skills.

Wild guesses can do more harm than good.

Still don’t know?

Never leave students hanging…• It’s your responsibility to get the

question to someone who can answer it.

Do• Find someone else who can answer the question.• Or, help them send clear, complete email to the help

alias/Piazza site.• Or, compose the email yourself and cc the students –

be sure that the file in question has been submitted!

Don’t• Shrug, and walk away.• Say “I don’t know. Find the prof,” and walk away.• Say “I don’t know. Send an email,” and walk away.

What if you DO know?

Be Respectful!

Beware The Curse of Knowledge

“Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it

becomes hard to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators.”

Preparation

Before you show up to lab/office hours:• Read the assignment carefully!

• Think how you’d approach the problems…

• Optionally, review solutionsBut -- there are often many ways to solve a problem!

These count as paid work

Other thoughts/tips?

Any strategies that you find particularly effective or ineffective?

A Case Study: Monte Carlo Pi

The idea Buggy code!