Effectiveness of Criteria for Pair Combination and Obstructive Factors of Pair Work in Computer Literacy Education

Since 2008, we have introduced a pair approach in the university's computer literacy education with the aim of establishing the pair work, which is effective in addressing computer literacy gap. The previous report focused on the pair learning effect from the amount of utterances, and it revealed that paired cooperative problem solving improved the overall task achievement level and suggested that mixed-gender pairs with similar academic ability were highly effective as the combination of criteria. To affirm the suggested combination of criteria and to find the obstructive factors of pair work, this study shows the result of pairs in the problem-solving class conducted in a computer literacy program in two private universities in Japan, in 2011. A total of six classes and approximately 280 students were examined to see the effectiveness of the criteria for pair combination by comparing the experimental group (the criteria combination pair) with the control group (the random combination pair). The task achievement and the amount of utterances of the experimental group were overall higher than those of the control group. From the survey, it was observed that the criteria for pair combination were effective. Conversely, high basic academic ability and male pairing were the factors that highly affected the negative effect of pair work.