Affiliations: [a] Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan | [b] Department of Information Management, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Chih-Kai Chang, Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan. E-mail:[email protected]
Abstract: Collaborative learning is an activity in which two or more students learn
something together. Many studies have found that collaborative learning
improve students' memory retention and motivation to learn. Peer Instruction
(PI) is one of the most successful evidence-based collaborative learning
methods. This article investigates issues of student motivation in courses
on data structures through a one-on-one PI collaborative learning activity.
Students typically find the concepts of data structure vague and the related
programs complex and difficult to comprehend. Pair programming was conducted
to scaffold university students understanding data structures by commenting
related programs. To investigate students' motivational status, the ARCS
model was used to evaluate students' motivation in each of four dimensions:
Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Moreover, three items
about the retention of learning were added to measure how information is
lost over time. Every ``pair'' (i.e., two students) was asked to comment on
the programs provided by a specific data structures concept. The control
groups were asked to elaborate on the data structures programs by adding
algorithmic description comments to the beginning of programs. The
experimental groups were asked to elaborate on the data structures programs
by adding code description comments to the data structures programs line by
line. The experimental results show that the confidence and retention of
learning in experimental groups are significantly better than those of the
control group. The findings suggest that the effects of pair programming
activities can be leveraged based on an understanding of students'
motivation for and retention of learning.
