Have students draw a scalable smiley face through programming to motivate the importance of using variables.
Have students pair program to increase their interactions with one another, promote retention of female students, and maximize resources.
Have students work on their own when first introduced to material then progress to pair programming projects to optimize pair programming outcomes.
Based on Khan Academy’s internal observations, use text-based languages in class for students who are at least 12 years old to begin giving them experience with syntax.
Encourage students to work on side projects to make sure they are getting enough programming practice and to make them more marketable.
Use videos to introduce new information and text to review it, as each is better suited to different stages of the learning process.
Rotate students into different pairs during a single class period so they learn to explain and read code quickly.
Structure homeworks like code reviews to help students iterate on their code and learn the importance of readability.