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1. Pair Programming: Leveling the Field for Students with Learning Disabilities

   Watson, S.; Li, L.; Xu, L.; He, W.; Pribesh, S.; Major, D. (March 2021, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   SITE (Ed.)

   This paper is the report on the findings of a three-year study conducted in undergraduate computer science courses. It also describes the changes made to deal with COVID-19 during the summer and fall of 2020. We collected data on over 800 students with approximately 35 students identified as having learning disabilities (LD). These students were not professional programmers in a computer science department; rather, they were students from a Business College. Our preliminary results show that pair programming improved (a) teamwork and communication between the pairs; (b) confidence in students; and (c) comprehension and learning for all students. Thus, our preliminary results indicate that pair programming improved everyone’s performance. Educators should consider the importance of collaboration with other disciplines when creating inclusive environments for students with disabilities. 

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2. ATTITUDES TOWARD PROGRAMMING FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN UNDERGRADUATE TECHNOLOGYCOURSES THAT USE PAIR PROGRAMMING: A MATCHED SAMPLES APPROACH

   Watson, S.; Li, L.; Pribesh, S.; Xu, L. (March 2022, The International Conference on Education and New Developments)

   Carmo, M. (Ed.)

   To succeed in the 21stcentury, students need to acquire skills that are critical to the workforce such as collaboration, social skills, and technology literacy (World Economic Forum, 2016). Individuals with disabilities (D) must develop the same skills as their peers without disabilities. Unfortunately, college students with disabilities often find computing courses frustrating and are more vulnerable to lower academic self-concept, academic challenges, and disability stigma (Kim & Kutscher, 2021). Although computing disciplines often provide good job opportunities, Students with D who enrolled in computing courses are especially at risk of falling behind and dropping out of introductory programming courses (Richman et al., 2014). To address the problem, we examined the use of pair programming, a collaborative approach to programming, as a pedagogic method to improve students with disabilities’ attitudes toward programming in undergraduate computer courses. There is a need to study effective instructional approaches that can facilitate learning and improve the outcomes of students with D. 

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3. Strategies Used by Students with Learning Disabilities for Reasoning about Slope.

   DeJarnette, A. F; Hord, C. (November 2019, North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Students with learning disabilities (LD), like other learners, show a range of resources and strategies for reasoning about complex concepts in mathematics. This study comes from a project in which a group of five ninth-grade students with LD participated in a once-weekly tutoring program with university pre-service teachers. We asked, what strategies did students use to reason about slope? Students drew upon knowledge of concepts related to constant covariation when given the opportunity. This study suggests that students with LD have rich conceptual knowledge that can be leveraged to improve their success in Algebra. 

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4. The Relationship of CS Attitudes, Perceptions of Collaboration, and Pair Programming Strategies on Upper Elementary Students' CS Learning

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3430665.3456347  

   Vandenberg, Jessica; Rachmatullah, Arif; Lynch, Collin; Boyer, Kristy Elizabeth; Wiebe, Eric (June 2021, The 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Pair programming is a popular strategy in computer science education to teach programming to novices. In this study, we examined the effect of three different pair programming conditions on up- per elementary school students’ CS conceptual understanding. The three conditions were one-computer with roles (1C with roles), two computers without roles (2C no roles), and two computers with roles (2C with roles). These students were engaged in four days of computer programming activities and took the CS concept assessment, CS attitudes, and collaboration perceptions before and after the activities. We used the validated E-CSCA (Elementary Computer Science Concepts Assessment) to measure elementary students’ understanding of CS concepts. We tested the relation- ship of different pair programming conditions on the students’ CS conceptual understanding and found that different conditions impacted students’ CS conceptual understanding, wherein students in 2C roles demonstrated better CS learning than the other two conditions. The results also showed no changes in students’ CS attitudes and perceptions of collaboration before and after the activities. Furthermore, the results indicated no significant impact of these attitudinal factors on students’ learning CS concepts in pair programming settings. Our study highlights the importance of the roles and number of computers in pair programming settings, especially for elementary students. 

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5. Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities to Solve Secondary School Algebra Problems

   Hord, C.; Hoyng, C; Krumpelman, M. L.; Baker, J. (April 2021, Insights on learning disabilities)

   In this paper, we make a case for the importance of teaching secondary school level algebra to students with learning disabilities (LD). Furthermore, we illustrate how they struggle and present best-practices on how they are best supported. We demonstrate effective ways of how teachers can show students with LD how to solve challenging algebra problems. In particular, we depict how educators can help learners with LD show their work on paper in ways that support their thinking processes as they engage with challenging algebra problems. 

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