In Support of Pair Programming in the Introductory Computer Science Course

A formal pair programming experiment was run at North Carolina to empirically assess the educational efficacy of the technique in a CS1 course. Results indicate that students who practice pair programming perform better on programming projects and are more likely to succeed by completing the class with a C or better. Student pairs are more self-sufficient which reduces their reliance on the teaching staff. Qualitatively, paired students demonstrate higherorder thinking skills than students who worked alone. These results are supportive of pair programming as a collaborative learning technique. In industry, programmers collaborate for the majority of their day. In Peopleware (DeMarco and Lister, 1987), it was reported that software developers generally spend 30 % of their time working alone, 50 % of their time working with one other person, and 20 % of their time working with two or more people. Yet, most often when completing their degree, programmers must learn to program alone; collaboration is considered cheating. This is unfortunate not only because collaboration is encouraged and required in a student’s future professional life, but there are also findings that cooperative and collaborative pedagogies are beneficial to students