The ABC of Pair Programming: Gender-dependent Attitude, Behavior and Code of Young Learners
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 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 of 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 for implementing gender-sensitive pair programming in the classroom.
Thu 18 MayDisplayed time zone: Hobart change
11:00 - 12:30 | Studies on gender in SESEIS - Software Engineering in Society / Technical Track / SEET - Software Engineering Education and Training at Meeting Room 101 Chair(s): Ita Richardson Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick | ||
11:00 15mTalk | “STILL AROUND”: Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women Software Developers Technical Track Sterre van Breukelen Eindhoven University of Technology, Ann Barcomb Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Sebastian Baltes SAP SE & University of Adelaide, Alexander Serebrenik Eindhoven University of Technology Pre-print | ||
11:15 15mTalk | The ABC of Pair Programming: Gender-dependent Attitude, Behavior and Code of Young Learners SEET - Software Engineering Education and Training Pre-print | ||
11:30 15mTalk | Engaging Girls in Computer Science: Do Single-Gender Interdisciplinary Classes Help? SEET - Software Engineering Education and Training Kai Marquardt Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Lucia Happe Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Ingo Wagner Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Pre-print | ||
11:45 15mPaper | Fundamentalists, Integrationists, & Transformationists: An Empirical Theory of Men Software Engineers' Orientations in Gender Inequalities SEIS - Software Engineering in Society Yi Wang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xinyue Zhang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Wei Wang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications | ||
12:00 15mPaper | Draw a Software Engineer Test - An Investigation into Children's Perception of Software Engineering Profession SEIS - Software Engineering in Society Claudia Maria Cutrupi Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Irene Zanardi USI Università della Svizzera italiana, Letizia Jaccheri Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Monica Landoni USI Università della Svizzera italiana | ||
12:15 15mFull-paper | Benefits and Limitations of Remote Work to LGBTQIA+ Software Professionals SEIS - Software Engineering in Society Ronnie de Souza Santos Cape Breton University, Cleyton V. C. de Magalhaes CESAR School, Paul Ralph Dalhousie University Pre-print |