Imagine a faded example as a sort of fill-in-the-blank challenge, but with code. You can start students with a nearly completed block of code, but ask them to fill in some blanks. Over time, you can ask for more and more blanks until the student is essentially coding the whole problem. This arrangement is often known as “scaffolding.” The benefits of faded examples This approach helps students work from example to example, learning progressively more about the code as they advance. It introduces an element of interactivity and debugging into the exercise in a way that starting off a blank file does not.

1. Teaching coding:
What is a faded
example?

2. Like fill-in-the-blank, but with code
• Start with a nearly completed block and ask student
to fill in the blanks
• As the exercise progresses, include more and more
blanks until the student is basically coding
independently
• Non-blank code is known as “scaffolding”

3. Benefits of faded examples
• Students learn by example
• Students learn progressively more as they advance
• It’s more interactive than a blank page

4. Faded example, example
# Faded example
# Print the first six rows of iris
head(___)
# Assign the number of rows of iris
# to the variable iris_rowcount
iris_rowcount <- ___(iris)
# Assign the number of columns of iris
# to the variable iris_columncount
___ <- ___
# Does the number of rows in iris equal
# the number of columns?
___
# Faded example solution
# Print the first six rows of iris
head(iris)
# Assign the number of rows of iris
# to the variable iris_rowcount
iris_rowcount <- nrow(iris)
# Assign the number of columns of iris
# to the variable iris_columncount
iris_colcount <- ncol(iris)
# Does the number of rows in iris equal
# the number of columns?
nrow(iris) == ncol(iris)

5. LET'S TALK
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stringfestanalytics.com
EMAIL ADDRESS
george@stringfestanalytics.com
LINKEDIN
linkedin.com/in/gjmount