Assigning student programming pairs based on their mental model consistency: An initial investigation

Alex Radermacher, Gursimran Walia, Richard Rummelt

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pair Programming has been shown to be beneficial to student learning. Much research has been conducted to effectively create student pairs when using pair programming in introductory computer science courses. This paper reports results of research investigating the effectiveness of pairing students based on their mental model consistency. Prior research has found a strong correlation between mental model consistency and performance in introductory computer programming courses. Evaluating students' mental models helps to provide insights into how students approach problem solving and may indicate how to effectively pair students to improve their programming ability and learning. The results from an empirical study conducted to investigate these effects indicate that mental model consistency is a predictor of student success in an introductory programming course. Future goals of this research are to fully evaluate all possible pairing arrangements and to produce tests that can be used to evaluate mental model consistency for other computer science concepts.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSIGCSE'12 - Proceedings of the 43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
Pages325-330
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE'12 - Raleigh, NC, United States
Duration: Feb 29 2012Mar 3 2012

Publication series

NameSIGCSE'12 - Proceedings of the 43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Conference

Conference43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE'12
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityRaleigh, NC
Period2/29/123/3/12

Keywords

  • computer programming
  • empirical study
  • mental model
  • mental model consistency
  • pair programming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science (miscellaneous)
  • Education

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