Pair Programming in Elementary Classroom: How does Collaborative Learning Benefit Students?
Abstract: There is a growing push to bring programming to K-12 learners. Yet little is known about how to help elementary school students learn programming effectively. The purpose of this study was to examine how pair programming as a collaborative learning strategy, affected students learning programming. The study included two 4th grade classes, a total of 84 students, who were taking the “Programming with Scratch” class with the same instructor for one semester. Students’ computational thinking skills and programming self-efficacy were evaluated as indicators of students’ programming skills and attitude. The results showed students’ self-efficacy significantly improved. The interviews with student pairs afterwards provided insights for understanding the results. The findings suggested that K-12 programming teachers could use pair-programming as an effective approach to improve students’ programming skills, programming self-efficacy, and beyond.