Pair programming and pair trading: effects on learning and motivation in a CS2 course

  • Authors:
  • Timothy H. DeClue

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar MO

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Pair programming is a seemingly powerful addition to the tool kit of educators wishing to enhance learning in software engineering students. This technique, found among professional software development practices associated with extreme programming (Beck), has probably existed informally for some time in various forms of collaborative software development. More recently pair programming has been formalized and used as an intentional pedagogical tool in the classroom. During the Spring semester of 2002, the author implemented a multi-phase project in CS2 similar to the one described by Newhall and Meeden (2002). The author used pair-programming and pair-trading to facilitate the production of high quality code. Qualitative data were collected from the students throughout the project. This paper documents the qualitative study and sheds some light on why pair programming can be successful in educational applications, and also how pair programmers can be assessed.