Have students work on their own when first introduced to material then progress to pair programming projects to optimize pair programming outcomes.
- This gives students a chance to become familiar and competent with the different pieces of a lesson before combining them all into complex projects.
- Moving to pair programming for the group work gives students the opportunity to help each other when they get confused on material they learned individually.
- When students help each other, fewer teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) are needed.