Foundations Reflection

What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?

My ego can be helpful when it pushes me to achieve goals and deadlines, and persevere through difficulty.

But, it can become unhelpful when it prevents me from being vulnerable or asking for help.

I need to be careful not to overwork my ego, and use other intrinsic and even extrinsic rewards to motivate myself.

What are the role of values, empathy, and self-awareness in learning and programming?

When creating, programmers use empathy to imagine how people using their application will approach it, and anticipate any problems they may have. Empathy is a skill that computers don’t have, a special human skill that we bring to technology.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognise your own strengths and weaknesses and acknowledge that others have different skills and perspectives. This is helpful in learning individually, learning with others and in creating experiences for others.

Our values can guide us to create useful and inclusive technology that makes life easier or solves problems we ourselves have experienced.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

I was surprised at how well aligned the core curriculum was to the intensity of the tech curriculum. It’s obvious that it was written by someone with personal experience with the process.

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

I enjoy learning about different ‘soft skills’ learning techniques and ideas, but I find the process of reflecting and journaling is challenging. I understand that both help reinforce learning, but I find it frustrating sometimes to ‘look backwards’.

Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development Bootcamp course?

Teaching core learning (or human skills, such as problem-solving, perseverance ) is an important part of producing good programmers who will work well in teams.

Secondly, because the learning process is different for adult students.

Personally, I have been plagued with self-doubt and worries and the core lessons, especially mindfulness and growth mindset have helped calm these feelings.

Does the time you spent studying core learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practise programming instead? Justify your answer.

The urge to practise programming, when you know so little, is overwhelming.

But logically, just like taking breaks, training and practicing your mindfulness and emotional coping skills is not a distraction but the key to help you solve problems more efficiently.