Encouraging the Development of Computational Thinking Skills through Structured Dance Activities (Discussion Paper)
Fiona Fairlie · 2023
This paper investigates whether aspects of structured dance and choreography may improve cognitive skills related to computational thinking. It also explores the relationship between performance on computational thinking tasks and motivation. Twenty participants,aged between 7 and 9 years old, undertook the Beginners Computational Thinking Test (BCTt) as a pre-test, took part in three dance related workshops then completed the BCTt as post-test and responded to an adapted version of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI). Student performance on the BCTt improved significantly from pre-test to post-test for both boys and girls and seems generalised across the computational categories measured by BCTt. The study did not show a correlation between performance and motivation in girls but suggests that there may be some correlation between improvement in score and reported enjoyment in boys.