Computer games development experience and appreciative learning approach for creative process enhancement

Abstract

Nurturing children into thinking creatively needs to take account of what interest them. Therefore, the study conducted engaged students with computer games development as it corresponded with the young generation’s habits and interests. This was done with the purpose to enhance the creative process experienced by students. It involved 69 Malaysian form one (grade seven) students, aged 13–14 year-old. Appreciative learning approach, which consisted of discover, dream, design and destiny stages, was applied in treatment group whiles control group applied self-paced learning, followed by do-it-yourself session. Findings showed students in treatment group gained accelerated mean score in creative process experienced on the second week and stabilized thereafter for the following weeks. These mean scores were significantly higher than control group, throughout the study. Although students in control group exhibited significantly lower mean scores in creative process, yet these mean scores gradually getting higher and higher each week significantly. As a conclusion, appreciative learning approach contributes significantly on the level of creative process experienced by students. However, creative process experienced did not happen in a clear-cut order of inspiration, clarification, evaluation, distillation, incubation, perspiration (ICEDIP). In addition, it is not true that without appreciative learning approach, students will not experience any creative process. Creative process happens all the time when the mind is active but the level can be accelerated by appropriate pedagogical approach. Caution is warranted, as this article is just part of the action research being carried out in applying appreciative learning approach as a teaching practice in computer games development class.