Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Teaching Design Patterns

I have a long standing lurking suspicion that design patterns are inherently difficult to teach; my own experience both teaching and using design patterns indicates that they are only really appreciated by students who are able to relate the design pattern in question directly to a program they have developed. Otherwise not only do students have difficulty understanding the design pattern, but it becomes very difficult for them to apply it as they have difficulty recognizing the appropriate situation.