Columbia Computer Science

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

CRA: pair programming is claimed to increase retention of CS students

An article in the March 2005 edition of Computing Research News claims that pair programming can significantly increase the number of students that choose a CS major after their first CS class:
On individually taken final exams, paired students performed as well as solo students, were just as likely to pass the subsequent programming course where pair programming was not used, and were more likely to be registered as CS-related majors one year later. ... Among the group of women who indicated on the first day of the introductory course that they planned to major in a CS-related field, those who paired were more likely to have declared a CS-related major one year later than those who worked individually. Out of 42 women who indicated they planned a CS-related major and worked in a pair for CS1, 25 (59.5%) of them had declared a CS-related major one year later, compared with only 2 out of 9 (22.2%) of the women who worked alone. ... Among the group of men who indicated on the first day of the introductory course that they planned to major in a CS-related field, those who paired were also more likely to have declared a CS-related major one year later than those who worked individually. Out of 150 men who indicated they planned a CS-related major and paired in CS1, 111 (74%) of them had declared a CS-related major one year later, compared with only 17 of the 36 (47.2%) who worked alone.

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