Examining the Compatibility of Student Pair Programmers

Pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both students and teaching staff in university courses. A two-phased study of 1350 students was conducted at North Carolina State University from 2002-2005 to determine if teaching staff can proactively form compatible pairs based upon any of the following factors: personality type, learning style, skill level, programming self esteem, work ethic, or time management preference. We examined compatibility among freshmen, advanced undergraduate and graduate student pair programmers. We have found that overall 93% of students are compatible with their partners. Students notably preferred to pair with a partner that he or she perceived to be of similar or higher skill level to them, which can be predicted by grouping students with similar grade point average. Additionally, pairs comprised of a sensor and an intuitor learning style seem to be compatible, and pairs with differing work ethic are generally not compatible