Analyzing the Effects of Coding Education through Pair Programming for the Computational Thinking and Creativity of Elementary School Students

Abstract

Objectives: This study examines the effects of coding education applying pair programming to improve elementary school students’ computational thinking and creativity. Coding education program focuses on geometry in a math curriculum. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In executing coding education program, the pair programming method was applied to the experimental group, and the general educational technique of learning via lectures/practice was applied to the comparison group. Computational cognition tests A and B, developed in Kim’s study, were employed as the testing tools for computational thinking. Figure A, among Torrance’s Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), was used to assess creativity. Findings: To verify the effectiveness of combining the coding education program and pair programming in improving computational thinking, A and B types of computational cognition tests were performed before and after the education program and the results were analyzed. The groups did not show significant differences when compared; however, when the results were compared within each group, the experimental group showed a significant increase in computational thinking, whereas the comparison group did not. Next, to verify the effectiveness of combining coding education program and pair programming in improving creativity, Figure A type of TTCT tests were performed before and after the education program and the results were analyzed. Again, the two groups did not show significant differences when compared; however, when the results were compared within each group, the experimental group showed significant increase in the areas of “Creativity Index,” “creativity average,” “fluency,” and “originality,” whereas the comparison group showed significant differences in the areas of “originality,” and “resistance to premature closure”. Improvements/Applications: This study is significant because pair programming, a cooperative learning approach, was applied to the coding education program for elementary school students. This facilitated in increasing their computational thinking and creativity.