P Pair Programming and Gender
1 Pair Programming and Gender P Linda L. Werner University of California, USA Brian Hanks Fort Lewis College, USA Charlie McDowell University of California, USA INTRODUCTION methods by stating that cooperative learning in- volves students taking responsibility for subtasks, Studies of pair programming both in industry and whereas collaborative learning requires that the academic settings have found improvements in pro- group works together on all aspects of the task gram quality, test scores, confidence, enjoyment, (Underwood & Underwood, 1999). The consensus and retention in computer-related majors. In this from numerous field and laboratory investigations is article we define pair programming, summarize the that academic achievement such as performance on results of pair programming research, and show why a test is enhanced when an individual learns informa- we believe pair programming will help women and tion with others as opposed to individually (O’Donnell men succeed in IT majors. & Dansereu, 1992; Slavin, 1996; Totten, Sills, & Digby, & Russ, 1991). Cooperative activities have been taught and prac- BACKGROUND ticed for other software system development tasks such as design and software engineering but not for Traditional undergraduate introductory programming programming (Basili, Green, Laitenburger, Lanubile, courses generally require that students work indi- Shull, Sorumgard, et al., 1996; Fagan, 1986, Sauer, vidually on their programming assignments. In these Jeffrey, Land, & Yetton, 2000; Schlimmer, Fletcher, courses, working with another student on program- & Hermens, 1994). Often cooperative methods are ming homework constitutes cheating and is not used in upper division computer science (CS) courses tolerated. The only resources available to help stu- such as compiler design and software engineering in dents with problems are the course instructor, the which group projects are encouraged or required.
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