Effectiveness of Pair Programming in Enhancing Creative Thinking Skills in Coding Lessons
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26740/jrpd.v12n1.p18-31Keywords:
Pair Programing, Coding Learning, Creative Thinking, collaborative learning, primary educationAbstract
Coding lessons are increasingly offered to young learners, yet limited research has examined how collaborative programming strategies relate to specific dimensions of creative thinking. This study aimed to examine whether and how pair programming in coding lessons relates to gains in fluency, originality, and elaboration compared with conventional direct instruction, using a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design with 44 fifth-grade students from two intact classes (22 students each) who completed seven meetings with Scratch and were assessed with an adapted Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Figural Form A. The experimental group showed significant pretest to posttest gains in fluency (p < .001) and originality (p = .003) and a non-significant gain in elaboration (p = .157), none of the control group’s gains were significant, and gains were larger in the experimental group for fluency (13.55 compared with 2.09, p = .008) and originality (10.91 compared with 2.13, p = .011) with no significant difference for elaboration (2.09 compared with 1.09, p = .325). Pair programming was associated with larger gains in the idea-generation indicators of creative thinking, and the elaboration indicator may need additional instructional support, although the intact-class design and short intervention call for cautious interpretation.
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