The benefits of pairing by ability
Grant Braught, John MacCormick, Tim Wahls · 2010
An analysis of data from 259 CS1 students is performed to compare the performance of students who were paired by demonstrated ability to that of students who were paired randomly or worked alone. The results suggest that when given individual programming tasks to complete, lowest-quartile students who were paired by ability perform better than those who were paired randomly and those who worked alone.