I too dislike the obsession with learning to code because, unless you're doing it volutarily and letting your own passion guide you to backfill missing bits of knowledge, it becomes a rote learning exercise devoid of understanding. As you state, the focus isn't on how to solve problems which is the raison d'etre of programming so the effort is wasted.
The problem I see is that we treat computer science as something you eventually get round to learning once you've already taken some preliminary steps with coding, and even then it's something to be looked at late into high school or at university. Code is the awesome tool that motivates learning, but I wonder if the process is taught the wrong way round. Could it be done a little compsci first, then code?
I started a series of blog posts trying to introduce the non-technical reader to the fundamentals of computer science in plain english: http://lifebeyondfife.com/tag/compsci-in-plain-english/. Still a work in progress, I'm trying to keep it interesting and explain why computer science is important at the same time.
There isn't really such a skill as "problem solving", problem solving is just applying intelligence and experience to something that you have been taught to do.
This is for children, so it's very basic. Read the question. Reword the question if that helps. Gather the information you have. List the information you need, and how to find that information. Sit and think about it a bit.
There are plenty of people who just throw their hands up in the air and give up if you ask them something they don't know.
The problem I see is that we treat computer science as something you eventually get round to learning once you've already taken some preliminary steps with coding, and even then it's something to be looked at late into high school or at university. Code is the awesome tool that motivates learning, but I wonder if the process is taught the wrong way round. Could it be done a little compsci first, then code?
I started a series of blog posts trying to introduce the non-technical reader to the fundamentals of computer science in plain english: http://lifebeyondfife.com/tag/compsci-in-plain-english/. Still a work in progress, I'm trying to keep it interesting and explain why computer science is important at the same time.