As a CS teacher, I think there is a time for touching a student's keyboard and a time for leading them with questions or some other method. You have to read the student. With weaker student's I will sometimes set them up with a partial answer and get them to complete it, or show them multiple solutions for a similar problem, hoping one will spur on insight.

Some people learn better by doing and discovering, others better by initially imitating and still others in different ways at different times.

For me there are no preferred methods, just a toolkit I build on and pull from as I learn more about teaching.