There are many things I learnt about myself during the core learning. The first thing I learnt wasn’t I actually don’t know a lot about myself. The questions about your values were really hard for me to answer, and I had a difficult time opening up and being self aware. Another new thing I have learnt about myself, is that I have a lot to improve on, but I can leverage the techniques learnt to be more successful. For example neuroplasticity, and growth mind set were things I were aware of, but by actively researching them I understand how I can improve them and how useful they can be in my life. The third thing I learnt about myself, is to not be too hard on myself. Sometimes when getting stuck on a problem, it can be super hard to get down about it, but learning about the core skills really helped me realise that it’s okay to feel like this sometimes, and how to deal with it when it comes up.
I think values, empathy, and self-awareness are all important things when it comes to learning and programming. Self-awareness is important as having the ability to understand yourself, and understand when you are under too much pressure/stress. I think empathy is one of the most important skills to have. Empathy allows you to connect with other people and understand what they’re feeling. This lets you adjust your approach when it comes to interacting with people, to make sure you are working with them in the most effective way.
The thing that surprised me the most was definitely how hard it was. I went into this course thinking that the programming was going to be super hard and the core would be pretty easy, but I was really wrong. In a lot of cases the core definitely felt more challenging. I definitely didn’t expect it to be like that, but it gave me a good opportunity to learn some new skills.
The hardest part about the core learning was trying to apply everything that I learned to myself. I found the material quite easy to research and understand, but actually applying to myself was much harder. For example, I understood the concept of a growth mindset, but I need to constantly remind myself to make sure I am trying to achieve a growth mindset, and all the other skills we learned.
I think one of the main reasons there is such a large focus on core learning, is the course is not just preparing us with the knowledge of how to build a program, but more importantly help us prepare for actually getting a job, and valuable life skills in general. When weighing up between two similar job prospects, the employer is much more likely to choose the one that is going to be able to work efficiently and effectively as a team, even if they are less proficient on the actual coding side of things.
I think the time spent studying core was useful. Initially I was a little sceptical about it, but the more I started to understand it the more I realised how useful it is. It is quite easy for someone to pick up a programming language, study it and learn it, but I think it’s much harder to develop the skills learned in core, even though I think the skills are equally valuable. These are skills that are not only going to help me on the job, but also in all aspects of my life, so I definitely think studying core is an important part of the curriculum.