Is pair programming more effective than other forms of collaboration for young students?

Lewis, Colleen M.

doi:10.1080/08993408.2011.579805

Cited by 108 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In constructionist learning, students work on extended projects, learn by doing, and find by themselves the specific knowledge they need, while the teachers provide additional guidance and support (Papert, 1993). Therefore, it was decided students would work in pairs, a choice that could -potentially-bring several benefits because (a) partners are able to share ideas and complete tasks collaboratively, which is an important aspect of the constructionist theory (Kafai & Harel, 1991), (b) it promotes and sustains students' engagement, important for the completion of novel, complex, and open-ended activities (Kafai & Resnick, 1996), (c) it allows students to construct knowledge between and by themselves and provides a source of intellectual support (Vygotsky, 1978), (d) peer explanations are considered to be better matched to students' existing understandings compared to other resources (Lewis, 2011), and (e) larger groups are less flexible; students are likely to succeed in cognitive tasks when they work in pairs (Kutnick et al, 2005). In addition, the participating students had not been given, in the past, the opportunity to work on an extended project or in pairs, thus, it was considered important to check how students were going to respond to both.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students Learning to Program by Developing Games: Results of a Year-long Project in Primary School Settings

Fokides¹

2017

JITE:Research

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Aim/PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine whether the authoring of computer games in a mainstream primary school setting can support the learning of game design and programming concepts. Background Despite the benefits for students when they learn how to program and the significant body of research regarding this matter, these benefits are still under debate, and the teaching of programming has a relatively undeveloped pedagogy. With this in mind, a project was designed and implemented, having constructionism as its theoretical framework. Also, Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab was used for the development of students' games. MethodologyThe project lasted for almost a school year (fifty two-hour sessions) and the target group was fifth-grade students (ages 10-11). A total of 138 students participated, coming from five schools in Athens, Greece. Students were divided into three groups. While all groups worked in pairs, to the first there was no teachers' guidance, to the second there was limited teachers' guidance, and to the third, a combination of teacher-led and pair work was used. Each group developed three games of escalating complexity and a total of 207 games were analyzed. Data were collected by analyzing students' games and with a short questionnaire. ContributionThe study contributes to the debate surrounding the pedagogy of computer game authoring as a tool for teaching programming. That is because few studies have examined the above in mainstream settings, having as a target group primary school students. Furthermore, the present study is in contrast to most studies which involved intensive research projects, since it lasted for almost a school year. Learning to Program by Developing Games 476Findings It was found that the most commonly used programming concept was conditions, followed by variables and loops, while Boolean logic and functions were the least used ones. The most problematic concepts proved to be Boolean logic and loops, closely followed by functions. The least problematic concepts were conditions and variables. Also, the number of programming concepts that were used was increasing in each game, while the errors were decreasing. All in all, students' final games fall into the relational level according to a modified version of the SOLO taxonomy.While the findings indicated that, as well as learning some basic programming concepts, students enjoyed the activity and demonstrated positive attitudes to learning programming by developing games; it was also found that the teaching method did not have any effect on the learning outcomes nor in their views for game authoring. Recommendations for PractitionersExtended projects can be considered for teaching programming to primary school students, using visual programming tools that allow the development of games. The classes' teachers can undertake the task to teach programming if they are properly trained. The SOLO taxonomy can be used for assessing students' games. Future ResearchFuture studies can examine a variety of game-like prog...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students Learning to Program by Developing Games: Results of a Year-long Project in Primary School Settings

Fokides¹

2017

JITE:Research

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“…Programming was considered a solitary activity till Kent Beck introduced Extreme Programming (XP) and listed pair programming as one of its twelve practices mentioned by Lewis and Colleen in their work (Lewis, 2011).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With critical deadlines to meet, customer demands to be fulfilled and a constant desire to outshine their competitors, software professionals adopt pair programming in every possible situation (Lewis, 2011;Dogs and Klimmer, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimising Pair Programming in a Scholastic Framework: A Design Pattern Perspective

Rajagopal¹,

Hareesha²,

Kundapur³

2017

Journal of Computer Science

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Pair programming is one of the widely used practices of Extreme Programming (XP). XP is a software development process which intends to enhance quality of software code in order to cater to the ever increasing demands of customers looking for IT solutions. Pair programming promotes team building, raises confidence among individuals and eventually results in richer and a better codebase. As an attempt to compare solo and pair programming, group of post graduate students were assigned the task to implement four out of 23 design patterns (pertaining to real world scenarios) in their lab sessions. In this study, a systematic investigation on pairing by contemplating a pair programming scenario from a design pattern perspective has been presented. Results were obtained using JavaNCSS tool by considering software code metrics which indicated that pair programming can be beneficial in a scholastic framework.

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“…The focus of current researches is on understanding the conditions under which the skills that are learned in programming can transfer to cognitive development of learners [3]. For instance in [10] it was concluded that programming in pairs (a common situation due to laboratory restrictions in schools) has limitations, while in [7] it was pointed out that despite its original limitations, the newer versions of Logo with enhanced graphics and interface might find applications in pre-school ages.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Concurrent Programming Concepts Using Scratch in Primary School: Methodology and Evaluation

Fatourou¹,

Zygouris²,

Loukopoulos³

et al. 2018

Int. J. Eng. Ped.

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Abstract-Computer programming can help children develop problem solving and analytical skills. Thus, many countries have included computer science in the curriculum of primary school. Given differences in culture, available infrastructures, as well as the age pupils are introduced to computer science, forming a computer science curriculum still remains a challenge. Towards this end, this study focuses on exploring the potential merits of introducing concurrent programming concepts early in the learning process. The basic premise is that although concurrent programming at its full details is a rather advanced topic even at university level, it is everyday practice to perform two or more tasks simultaneously that might need (or not) some sort of synchronization. Therefore, the tutor can capitalize on everyday experience to explain basic concepts on concurrency. Such correlation between life experience and concurrent programming challenges may expand the cognitive functions of the pupils and provide them with further background to improve analytical thinking. The proposed curriculum for fifth and sixth grade primary school was adopted in seven classes in Greece. Results indicate that uninitiated to programming pupils at the age of ten (fifth grade) were able to comprehend basic concurrency topics, while pupils at the age of eleven (sixth grade) with some programming familiarity were able to understand more advanced concepts.

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Is pair programming more effective than other forms of collaboration for young students?

Cited by 108 publications

References 18 publications

Students Learning to Program by Developing Games: Results of a Year-long Project in Primary School Settings

Students Learning to Program by Developing Games: Results of a Year-long Project in Primary School Settings

Optimising Pair Programming in a Scholastic Framework: A Design Pattern Perspective

Teaching Concurrent Programming Concepts Using Scratch in Primary School: Methodology and Evaluation

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