Table of Links
II. Background and Related Work
A. Learning to Program: SCRATCH and Pair Programming
B. Gender in Programming Education and Pair Programming
III. Course Design
A. Introducing Young Learners to Pair Programming
B. Implementation of Pair Programming
IV. Method
A. Pre-Study and B. Data Collection
C. Dataset and D. Data Analysis
V. Results
VI. Conclusions and Future Work, Acknowledgments, and References
Abstract—Young learners are increasingly introduced to programming, and one of the main challenges for educators is to achieve learning success while also creating enthusiasm. As it is particularly difficult to achieve this enthusiasm initially in young females, prior work has identified gender-specific differences in the programming behavior of young learners. Since pair programming, which turns programming into a more sociable activity, has been proposed as an approach to support programming education, in this paper we aim to investigate whether similar gender-specific characteristics can also be observed during pair programming. Therefore, we designed a gender-neutral introductory SCRATCH programming course tailored for integrating pair programming principles, and conducted it with a total of 139 students aged between 8 and 14 years. To identify gender-dependent differences and similarities, we measure the attitude towards programming and the course setting, observe the behavior of the students while programming, and analyze the code of the programs for different gender-combinations. Overall, our study demonstrates that pair programming is well suited for young learners and results in a positive attitude. While the resulting programs are similar in quality and complexity independent of gender, differences are evident when it comes to the compliance to pair programming roles, the exploration of code, and the creative customization of programs. These findings contribute to an in-depth understanding of social and technical gender specifics of pair programming, and provide educators with resources and guidance for implementing gender-sensitive pair programming in the classroom.
I. INTRODUCTION
Computer science (CS), and programming as one core concept of software engineering (SE), are skills that are in high demand, hence countries around the world are increasingly introducing CS in schools [1], [2]. It is important to introduce programming early [3]–[5] to provide students with their own experience of programming and to reduce stereotypical beliefs [6]–[9]. This is particularly relevant since there are still fewer females in CS, especially in SE [10].
To address this challenge and to demonstrate to young females that programming is indeed a social activity which requires communication and collaboration [11], [12], the team-based method of pair programming (PP) has the potential to support females in learning to program. In general, PP is a well established agile technique in professional software development with its distinctive feature of distributing the programming tasks within two pre-defined roles [13] of a driver, who does the coding, and a navigator who advises and gives feedback to the driver. These role definitions make PP well suited for education, since it can be better ensured that both students in the PP pair participate in programming on an equal level [14]. However, there has been little research on whether and how gender differences occur in PP when applying it to younger programming learners [4].
In this paper, we aim to bridge the gap in knowledge about the role of different pair combinations among young novices by identifying gender-dependent characteristics of PP in introductory programming courses. We designed an introductory programming in-class course targeting the integration of basic PP principles into SCRATCH, and conducted it nine times at several schools with 139 students between the ages of 8 and 14 with no prior programming experience. We emphasized a gender-neutral course design to reduce potential gender stereotypes [15], [16]. We measure gender-dependent effects on three key factors of relevance as demonstrated by previous studies: (1) the students’ attitude towards programming and the course design, (2) the behavior within the team, and (3) the process of programming as well as the resulting code.
Our study demonstrates that our course design successfully introduces PP to young novice programmers, resulting in a positive attitude towards programming and the course design. We observe a preference for the role of driver independently of pair constellation, but all-male pairs adhere less to the role allocation than all-female pairs, and are more adventurous in exploring the programming environment. We also observe gender stereotypical preferences when giving pairs creative freedom, just like during individual programming, with all-female pairs focusing more on costumes and backgrounds. Overall, PP can be implemented successfully in lower grades and provides young students, especially females, a positive initial CS experience, although teachers have to pay attention to certain gender-dependent behaviors. Our findings support educators to design courses that encourage young females to get involved in programming at an earlier stage.
To support replications and future research we provide all course materials and evaluations for replication online.[1]
This paper is
[1] https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21878859.v1 All sensitive data are available upon request.
Authors:
(1) Isabella Graßl, University of Passau, Passau, Germany ([email protected]);
(2) Gordon Fraser, University of Passau, Passau, Germany ([email protected]).