Skip to main content
CS Teaching Tips

Main navigation

  • Browse All Tips
  • Tags
  • 3D
  • About
  • Rate Tips
  • Tip Sheets

Pair students with similar skills to avoid one student dominating the collaboration.

Share Pair students with similar skills to avoid one student dominating the collaboration. with FacebookShare Pair students with similar skills to avoid one student dominating the collaboration. with Twitter

Research suggests that students benefit most when they are paired with a student with similar skills. This isn’t always possible, but significant gaps in skills sometimes lead to the weaker student only sitting and watching or mindlessly following their partner’s commands.

Example: "Find your assigned pair programming buddy!"

See this and related tips as a Tip Sheet: http://csteachingtips.org/tips-for-pair-programming

More about this tip

Other Tips By
Other Tips By Colleen Lewis

Similar tips

If you refer to sample people to explain concepts (such as Eve the Eavesdropper), select names and personas that are diverse in gender, race, and nationality or are gender-, race-, and nationality-neutral
Motivate students who get discouraged with difficult research tasks by letting them know you believe they can do it and that some tasks are meant to push their boundaries so they can grow.
Help students see that they’re building basic understanding over the course of the semester that will turn into wider understanding since they may become frustrated with their perceived lack of progress.

For more information or to report a bug, contact us at admin@csteachingtips.org. Built with Bootstrap. Powered by Drupal.

Privacy Policy