Fatemeh Mardi
ABSTRACT
Novice-Expert Pair Coaching (NEPC) is an approach to synchronously teach programming online. A computer programming educator (the expert) and an individual without prior programming experience (the novice) team up while students observe as the novice learns to code. We call NEPC a 'do-aloud,' technique, as the novice verbalizes while carrying out the expert's instructions. This approach was developed to teach Python to rising 8th and 9th grade girls using Zoom. The novice assertively asked clarifying questions, experimented with newly-learned knowledge, and confirmed her new understandings. By being public learners, the novice modeled active learning, and the expert improved his teaching after learning of ambiguity and gaps in his instructions.
A video analysis of NEPC revealed individual and class advantages to teaching programming using this approach. NEPC slowed down the teaching pace, enabled learners to see the novice's keystrokes, and let students hear each dialogue between the novice and expert. The NEPC approach exploits a synchronous online format to provide more accessibility to each learner.
NEPC impacted the class climate by providing a more question-friendly and less intimidating learning environment. Active learning was modeled as being academically disruptive: the novice took risks, made and recovered from mistakes, and respectfully interrupted the expert. These disruptions were constructive, encouraging students to become active participants, not passive consumers. We thought the resulting assertiveness was particularly important for our target students: Black adolescent girls. Implications for creating a more diverse programming pipeline by recruiting novice learners of diverse backgrounds are discussed in the paper.
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Index Terms
- Novice - Expert Pair Coaching: Teaching Python in a Pandemic
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