The Impact of Pair Programming on the Performance of Slow-Paced Students: A Study on Data Structure Courses

Abstract

A study shows that pair programming can help slow-paced students in completing Introductory Programming assessment. This paper replicates the study on Data Structure course, in which the completion of the assessments does not only rely on logic but also theoretical knowledge. The aim is to check whether pair programming is still helpful on such new assessment characteristics. Three classes of Data Structure course with 14 teaching weeks and a total of 72 undergraduate students are considered in this study. Two of the classes are about Basic Data Structure while another one is the advanced one. Our evaluation shows that pair programming can help slow-paced students in both pair and individual academic performance. It also increases overall academic performance if the tasks are more logic oriented. Nevertheless, no benefits provided for fast-paced students paired to the slow-paced ones, even though all students appreciate the use of pair programming.

Keywords

• pair programming
• slow-paced students
• data structure
• quasi experiment
• computer science education