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Fostering creative thinking skills through computer programming: Explicit or integrated teaching?

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Abstract

Teaching programming skills has attracted a great deal of attention for more than a decade. One potential reason behind this is that the explicit teaching of computer programming can improve higher-order thinking skills, such as creativity. Moreover, whether or not creative programming learning activities, such as the use of creative-thinking-boosting-techniques integrated into programming, can assumedly make an additional contribution compared to explicit programming teaching remains a critical question that has yet to be answered. Therefore, the current study applied an experimental design with a sample of 34 preservice IT teachers to examine whether or not creative programming activities or explicit teaching of programming play a significant role in promoting creative thinking skills. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Verbal Form was employed to collect the study's data. The findings indicated significant improvements in both explicit teaching and creative programming periods. The results suggest that better creative thinking skills can be improved when the integration of creativity-boosting activities follows the explicit teaching of computer programming into computer programming teaching. The results highlighted the need to integrate creativity-boosting activities into the teaching of computing programming.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Mersin University, Mersin, Türkiye

    Serkan Şendağ & İlker Yakin

  2. Department of Computer Technologies, Eskişehir Technical University, Eskişehir, Türkiye

    Nuray Gedik

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  1. Serkan Şendağ
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Correspondence to Serkan Şendağ.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

1.1 Sample activity

1.1.1 Stage 1. Initiation and selecting taboo words:

The first stage begins with the instructor saying: "Hello, everyone. Today our topic is environmental pollution. Your task is to create an animation that fosters awareness regarding environmental pollution. You have 60 s to think about everything you know about environmental pollution.” At the end of the duration, the instructor adds: “Okay, you now have another 60 s to write three or four words that first come to your mind about environmental pollution.” Entitled “Taboo Words,” the instructor then lists the words generated by the learners. The instructor then explains the idea of “Taboo Words” by saying, "Okay, these words are strictly forbidden to be used in your animations.”

1.1.2 Stage 2. Selecting random input words with a provocation:

The instructor randomly assigns the learners into teams of three or four. Then, the instructor explains the idea of provocation and randomly matches the teams. The provocation stage aims to select the most interesting/irrelevant words or phrases that will challenge the opponent team more during the creation of their animation. The teams, therefore, become either “attacking” or “defending,” where someone from the attacking team chooses someone from the defending team and challenges them by asking questions until the most irrelevant word or phrases are found within 60 to 90 s. The role of the defender is to respond with the shortest, most succinct answers. The word or phrase picked by the attacker from the question–answer dialogue becomes one of the random input words for the defending team. Additionally, the instructor can offer an “igniter” to kick-start the process. An example of an "igniter" could be: "What is the most interesting thing you have recently?" The attacker then starts by using the igniter, as shown in the following example dialogue:

- What is the most exciting thing that you have had recently?

- I met a lovely girl.

- What happened?

- We spoke.

- Have you fallen in love with her?

- Yes.

- How about her?

- Sure!

- Why do you think so?

- Her soul smelled burnt!

- Stop! The phrase is “burnt soul.”

The term “Burnt soul” then becomes one of the random inputs.

1.1.3 Stage 3. Design and development with brainstorming:

Having determined all the random input, each team creates their animation by integrating the random input into their work. Meanwhile, they also need to avoid the use of taboo words. They are encouraged to brainstorm with their teammates during the design and development process to reach the most original product. The within-team brainstorming process may sometimes require opposition. In such a case, the teams may require judgment criteria such as "The idea is not original/flexible/functional because…" to challenge their product design and development.

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Şendağ, S., Yakin, İ. & Gedik, N. Fostering creative thinking skills through computer programming: Explicit or integrated teaching?. Educ Inf Technol 28, 10819–10838 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11629-4

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