Abstract
AbstractThis study assesses the relative effectiveness of solo and pair programming instructional strategies on students’ academic achievement in the Visual-Basic.Net Computer Programming Language. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The sample comprised 68 subjects distributed over the three treatment groups (27 solo programmers, 24 pair programmers, and 17 conventional programmers) from three hundred computer science students of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria. The Visual-Basic.Net Achievement Test (VAT) was used to collect data for both the pre- and post-tests. The VAT test was administered to all 68 subjects in the three groups, first as pre-test and after treatment as post-test. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the two research questions while ANCOVA and multiple comparisons were used in testing the three null hypotheses. The results of the analyses indicate that: (i) the experimental groups performed better than the control group, (ii) the treatment appeared to be more effective among male students than their female counterparts, (iii) the main effects of treatment and gender as well as the interaction effects of treatment and gender were not statistically significant.
Highlights
Until recently, most programming instruction in Nigerian tertiary institutions took place in lecture rooms, and focused upon theory
The finding of this study agrees with the findings of another study [10] in which there was no significant difference between pair and solo students in performances in quizzes, final examinations, and course grades
The non-significant main effect of gender and as regards the interaction effect of treatment and gender in this study agrees with the findings of [11], where researchers found that both men and women benefited from the pair programming technique
Summary
Most programming instruction in Nigerian tertiary institutions took place in lecture rooms, and focused upon theory. In various studies carried out at different times [4,5,6,7,8,9], findings showed that the pair programming technique brought about better student academic performance in final and midterm examinations, quizzes, programming assignments, and overall course grades. The interaction effect of gender (especially regarding female students) and programming techniques on students’ academic achievement is studied in the literature. In another study [11], pair programming showed greater effectiveness in helping female students to work on programming tasks In another comparison of paired and solo women who completed. HO3: There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on the mean achievement scores of students in VB.NET programming
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