Can Pair Programming Reduce the Gender Gap in Computing? A Study of Middle School Students Learning to Program

学习编程是计算机途径的切入点，但大量学生，特别是妇女和女孩，在大学和K-12水平的入门编程课程中辍学。为了吸引和留住女孩和妇女，需要采取教学方法，培养毅力、创造力、无畏精神、计算思维和解决问题的方法，或"无畏的探索"，这是这个研究小组创造的一个术语。这项研究的重点是中学的结对编程--两个人在一台电脑上合作的一种性别平等的做法。研究表明，结对编程对女性和男性都有好处，而且这种好处取决于伴侣的兼容性。然而，大多数结对编程研究都是在大学生或专业程序员中进行的，并且关注问题解决方案的效率或正确性，而不是协作的性质或解决问题的过程。本研究的目的是为了了解结对编程能够培养女中学生追求并坚持计算机领域的思维和解决问题的能力的条件。本研究是一项设计性实验，共有80名来自不同社会经济和文化背景的男女学生参加了游戏编程课程。这些课程将使用由研究人员和教师合作开发的十多年结对编程工具包进行教学。深入和多方法的数据收集和分析将被用来描述基于性别的差异，在学生的互动，并研究如何互动随着时间的推移，以及个人，关系和机构的因素，发挥作用，这些互动的性质。将收集关于执行进程以及个人学习、人际动态、互动顺序和学习背景的数据。混合方法分析过程将侧重于根据标准整合来自多个来源的数据，以确保方法的设计质量和解释严谨性。该项目将产生一个描述性的模型，描述中学结对编程是什么样子的，对谁来说，它促进了无畏的探索，以及与无畏探索的发展相关的互动过程。结果将促进知识的发展，并对教育实践有明确的影响。它们将有助于我们理解中学合作可以解决计算中的性别差距的条件，以及互动中是否存在基于性别和文化的差异，以及它们是否影响成功计算所需的思维和解决问题的能力。这项研究也将是第一个调查如何支持和衡量勇敢探索的发展，以增加计算领域的性别多样性。调查结果还将回应教师的实际关切，如如何促进有效的结对编程，如何评估个人学习，以及如何提供量身定制和性别平等的结对编程经验。

Learning to program is the entry point in a computing pathway, but large numbers of students, particularly women and girls, drop out of introductory programming courses at the college and K-12 level. To attract and retain girls and women, there is a need for pedagogical approaches that foster persistence, creativity, fearlessness, computational ways of thinking and problem solving, or "Intrepid Exploration," a term coined by this team of researchers. The proposed study focuses on pair programming in middle school--a gender-equitable practice where two people collaborate on one computer. Research suggests that pair programming benefits both women and men, and that benefits depend on partner compatibility. However, most pair-programming research has been done with university students or professional programmers, and focuses on the efficiency or correctness of a problem solution, rather than on the nature of the collaboration or the problem-solving process. The goal of this study is to understand the conditions under which pair programming can foster the kind of thinking and problem solving that will prepare female middle school students to pursue and persist in computing fields.This research will be a design experiment with 80 girls and boys from a range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds who are enrolled in game programming classes. The classes will be taught using a pair programming toolkit developed over ten years by a collaboration of researchers and teachers. In-depth and multi-method data collection and analysis will be used to describe gender-based differences in student interactions, and to study how interactions evolve over time, and the individual, relational, and institutional factors that play a role in the nature of those interactions. Data will be collected on the implementation process, as well as on individual learning, interpersonal dynamics, sequences of interactions, and the context in which learning takes place. The mixed methods analysis process will focus on the integration of data from multiple sources following criteria to ensure the design quality and interpretive rigor of the approach. The project will result in a descriptive model of what pair programming in middle school looks like, for whom it fosters intrepid exploration, and the interactional processes that are associated with the development of intrepid exploration.The results will advance knowledge and have clear implications for educational practice. They will contribute to our understanding of the conditions under which collaboration in middle school can address the gender gap in computing, as well as whether there are gender-based and cultural differences in interactions, and if they affect the kinds of thinking and problem solving needed to succeed in computing. The research will also be the first to investigate how to support and measure the development of intrepid exploration in efforts to increase gender diversity in computing. The findings will also be responsive to the practical concerns of teachers, such as how to foster effective pair programming, how to assess individual learning, and how to provide a tailored and gender-equitable pair programming experience.