Out-of-school assistance in the teaching of visual creative programming in the game-based environment – Case study: Poland
Taras Panskyi, Zdzisława Rowińska, Sebastian Biedroń · Thinking Skills and Creativity · 2019
The paper presents effects of out-of-school teaching of computer science in a visual creative programming course (Scratch) for children aged 9–14, held at the Lodz University of Technology. The research was carrying out during 2016–2018 school years. The study sample consists of 265 primary and secondary students from Lodz Voivodeship (province) in central Poland. The results were obtained from anonymous questionnaires completed by 221 course participants and their parents. The answers confirm that this type of course becomes a new fascinating manner of spending spare time by children. Moreover, quantitative analysis of student’s finals projects also has been performed. In the process of creative programming in the game-based environment, children develop the computational thinking skills, problem-solving strategies, and abstract thinking. Moreover, children are supported by their parents, who notice how important these competences are and how great opportunities they will present for children in future. Authors continue to grow Scratch programming course to democratize access to new technologies and education, preparing future generation for a world in which computational and algorithmic thinking is a central part of problem-solving. Perhaps some of the course participants will continue their study of programming and make it a career for their life.