How can I be an effective programming leader?

[vhcook]

One technique I use with the students I'm mentoring is to backseat drive. They do all the keyboard/mouse work (we are using Labview, but training is training), and I tell them what to type/click. They ask questions as we go, and it generally works out fairly well. I find that works better than the "I do, you watch" method because it forces me to slow down and explain better and the student gets the hands-on experience to reinforce the information.

Once I'm confident a student has the basics down, I give them a simple feature to implement and verbally talk through the concepts involved. I watch until they get started, then step aside to work on something else or leave the room for a few minutes (and go check on mechanical or something). After a reasonable period, I check on them and answer questions, then when they're ready, we test and debug together.

For more complicated concepts, we spend a lot of time in pseudocode/drawings to make sure we really understand what it is we're trying to accomplish before we start coding, which leads to better code.