Elementary Students' Collaborative Practices in Side-by-Side Programming

• In Event: 64.030 - Engineering and Computer Science in K–12 Contexts

Abstract

Collaboration is an effective pedagogical approach in programming instruction. In collaborative programming, students can participate in different types of collaborations settings. Dyads can use individual computers to do side-by-side programming or use a single computer to do pair-programming. However, collaborating side-by-side is not studied as often as pair-programming. In side-by-side programming, students collaborate side-by-side at individual computers but on a shared virtual programming platform. This article aims to explore characteristics of the side-by-side programming collaboration by the elementary level students. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed four dyads of elementary students’ interactions in side-by-side programming to discern each pairs’ collaboration approach. We found several patterns in the collaborative conversations of the dyads depending on how they responded to each other.

Authors

• Zarifa Zakaria, North Carolina State University

• Danielle Cadieux Boulden, North Carolina State University

• Jessica Vandenberg, North Carolina State University

• Jennifer Tsan

• Collin Lynch

• Eric N. Wiebe, North Carolina State University