Hmm.. There has been long been an educational interest in programming. Clearly, coding can be a vocational skill. If there has been a unique component to my professional skill set, it has been that I can write the code to create online learning environments and collect data on how the environments are used.
What is a little more “iffy” is the proposal that coding experience develops other kinds of skills any more than say working on large writing assignments. In fact, the research tends to show that higher order skills such as problem solving are largely domain specific. This, for example, is how I remember the large volume of research on the LOGO programming boom. The notion that a focus on a specific skill has general consequences makes about as much sense as Chris Bosh contending that Bill Gates should learn to play basketball because it is a great way to stay in shape. Developing the specific skill would certainly not be the most efficient way to accomplish the desired end.
Pro programmers are not actually the experts on the general benefits of developing such skills.
