Title: Exploring pair programming beyond computer science: a case study in its use in data science/data engineering

Authors: Jeffrey S. Saltz; Ivan Shamshurin

Addresses: School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, 233 Hinds Hall, Syracuse NY, 13244, USA ' School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, 233 Hinds Hall, Syracuse NY, 13244, USA

Abstract: While pair programming has been studied extensively when teaching computer science students, very little has been reported with respect to pair programming in a broader context. To help address this gap, this paper reports on a case study evaluating the effectiveness of pair programming within a data science course. Our findings show that pair programming can be useful for teaching data science students. In addition, while the driver role was similar to what has been described within a software development context, we note that the navigator role had an expanded set of responsibilities, which we termed researcher activities. Further research is required to explore if pair programming is also useful in other engineering domains and if the expanded navigator role is applicable in domains beyond data science/data engineering.

Keywords: data engineering; data science; pair programming; engineering education; teaching methods.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHES.2019.103360

International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability, 2019 Vol.2 No.4, pp.265 - 278

Received: 28 Dec 2017
Accepted: 28 Jun 2018
Published online: 05 Nov 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article