In their own words: Gender differences in student perceptions of pair programming

Women continue to be underrepresented in computer science. Previous research has identified factors that contribute to women’s decisions to pursue computing-related majors, but in order to truly address the problem of underrepresentation, we need to develop a deeper understanding of women’s experiences within computer science courses. Pair programming is demonstrably beneficial in many ways, and we hypothesize that there are gender differences in student perceptions of this widely used collaboration framework. To explore these differences and move toward a thorough understanding of students’ experiences, this paper investigates students’ written responses about their experiences with pair programming in a university-level introductory computer science course. Using thematic analysis, we identified overarching themes and distinguished between what men and women reported. Both women and men wrote about their overwhelmingly positive perceptions of pair programming. Women often mentioned that pair programming helps with engagement, feeling less frustrated, building confidence, and making friends. Women also noted that it is easier to learn from peers. These findings shed light on how pair programming may lower barriers to women’s participation and retention in computing and inform ongoing efforts to create more inclusive spaces in computing education.