This article put into words how I think most people feel at some point while learning a new concept -- comprehending things one by one and by themselves can be simplistic, but without knowing the surrounding context, it can be difficult to put all the pieces together.

The reason that an programming expert is just that, an expert, is that they have in effect "seen it all." They've been subjected to so many different scenarios that they know what to expect, and if the problem doesn't fit immediately into one of their plan paradigms, they know how to chunk it and deal.

I think that the thing that most students don't want to hear is that the only way to become a master of some skill is to repeatedly expose yourself to situations in which you will not succeed most of the time. I don't think that teaching these "plan sets" can take the place of the majority of experience required to move from the apprentice level to the master.

This article offered quite a bit of insight into learning, and as I said, Soloway was able to articulate things that I have been thinking for a long time. It's nice that he abstracted the concepts out and away from CS so that the reader can see how they apply to all types of learning and education.

MY COMMENTS: I have to agree with Lucas. No matter how many "plans" you show a student how to use to solve problems, they still need some experience to become familiar with it. I think that while there may be better ways to teach material, some experience will always be necessary in order for people to fully understand the concepts.