A Study On The Teaching Strategies Of Primary School Students Pair Programming

Pair programming(PP)is a usefulness approach to fostering computational thinking(CT)for young students.However,there are many factors to impact the effectiveness of PP.Among all factors,the social factors and period of switching roles are often ignored by researchers.Therefore,this study aimed to explore the impact of two social factors(gender and partnership)and period of switching roles on PP in a primary school setting.To that end,we conducted PP experiments in four classes from the sixth grade in a Chinese primary school.The first research results indicated:(1)there was no significant difference on compatibility among the gender pairs,but a significant difference among partnership pairs;(2)there was no significant difference on programming achievement and confidence among different pairs,and girls became more productive and confidence in PP;and(3)PP tightened up the partnership within pairs.The second research results indicated:(1)The period of switching roles had an positive impact on the performance of student programming.Class D who switched roles semi-freely got the higher scores than other classes in the achievement test(2)The period of switching roles resulted with difference in some dimensions of attitude,especially in the dimension of enjoyment.Class A(Every 5 minutes)and Class D(semi-free)got the higher scores than Class C(Every task)and Class B(Every class hour)in the dimension of enjoyment.In general,the programming confidence,enjoyment and value became significantly more positive after PP than before.Interestingly,however,students who switched roles every class hour actually decreased their enjoyment of programming after PP than before.(3)In semi-free class,more experienced pairs switched more fewer,more switches initiated by consensus followed by the variations of themes,indicated a high level of compatibility and experience of PP.These findings suggest that teachers should take partnership into account as an important factor in PP or other collaborative learning,and adopt PP as an effective approach to decrease the gender gap in programming courses,and make students socialize.Class D who switched roles semi-freely had an positive impact on the performance of student programming and the learning attitude,and facilitate more communication between team members,improve the compatibility in PP.