Neha Katira
Eric Wiebe
Suzanne Balik
ABSTRACT
In recent years, educators have increasingly used pair programming in their computer science courses. Pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both the teaching staff and the students in the courses. Occasionally, though, students are not compatible with their partners. An extensive study was done at the North Carolina State University to provide guidance on forming student pairs to improve the chances that pairs will be compatible and have a productive work relationship. We examined compatibility among freshman, advanced undergraduate, and graduate students. We have found that the students' perception of their partner's skill level has a significant influence on their compatibility. Graduate students work well with partners of similar actual skill level. Freshmen seem to work better with partners with different Myers Briggs personality type. Students' self-esteem does not appear to be a major contributor to pair compatibility.
- J. Bevan, L. Werner, and C. McDowell, "Guidelines for the User of Pair Programming in a Freshman Programming Class," Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, Kentucky, 2002.]] Google Scholar
Digital Library
- C. Bishop-Clark and D. D. Wheeler, "The Myers-Briggs personality type and its relationship to computer programming," Journal of Research on Computing in Education, vol. 26, pp. 358--370, Spring 1994.]]Google Scholar
- A. Joseph and M. Payne, "Group Dynamics and Collaborative Group Performance," presented at Thirty-fourth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Reno, NV, March 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Keirsey, Please Understand Me II. Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, 1998.]]Google Scholar
- C. McDowell, L. Werner, H. Bullock, and J. Fernald, "The Effect of Pair Programming on Performance in an Introductory Programming Course," ACM Special Interest Group of Computer Science Educators, Kentucky, 2002.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. McDowell, L. Werner, H. Bullock, and J. Fernald, "The Impact of Pair Programming on Student Performance of Computer Science Related Majors," International Conference on Software Engineering 2003, Portland, OR, 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- G. Melnik and F. Maurer, "Perceptions of Agile Practices: A Student Survey," Extreme Programming/Agile Universe, Chicago, IL, 2002.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- N. Nagappan, L. Williams, M. Ferzli, K. Yang, E. Wiebe, C. Miller, and S. Balik, "Improving the CS1 Experience with Pair Programming," SIGCSE 2003, 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- N. Nagappan, L. Williams, E. Wiebe, C. Miller, S. Balik, M. Ferzli, and J. Petlick, "Pair Learning: With an Eye Toward Future Success," Extreme Programming/Agile Universe, New Orleans, 2003.]]Google Scholar
- L. Thomas, M. Ratcliffe, and A. Robertson, "Code Warriors and Code-a-Phobes: A study in attitude and pair programming," presented at SIGCSE, Reno, NV, 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. S. Vygotsky, "Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes," M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman, Eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.]]Google Scholar
- L. Williams, E. Wiebe, K. Yang, M. Ferzli, and C. Miller, "In Support of Pair Programming in the Introductory Computer Science Course," Computer Science Education, vol. September, 2002.]]Google Scholar
- L. Williams and R. Kessler, Pair Programming Illuminated. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley, 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. Williams, C. McDowell, N. Nagappan, J. Fernald, and L. Werner, "Building Pair Programming Knowledge Through a Family of Experiments," International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE) 2003, Rome, 2003.]] Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- On understanding compatibility of student pair programmers
Recommendations
Towards increasing the compatibility of student pair programmers
ICSE '05: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Software engineeringAs pair programming is used widely in software engineering education, instructors may wish to proactively form pairs to increase the likelihood of compatible pairs. A study involving 361 software engineering students was carried out at North Carolina ...
On understanding compatibility of student pair programmers
In recent years, educators have increasingly used pair programming in their computer science courses. Pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both the teaching staff and the students in the courses. Occasionally, though, students are not ...
Examining the Compatibility of Student Pair Programmers
AGILE '06: Proceedings of the conference on AGILE 2006Pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both students and teaching staff in university courses. A two-phased study of 1350 students was conducted at North Carolina State University from 2002-2005 to determine if teaching staff can ...
Comments