Creativity in CS1: A Literature Review

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Sadia Sharmin
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Introductory Programming ◽  
Introductory Programming Courses ◽  
Programming Courses

Computer science is a fast-growing field in today’s digitized age, and working in this industry often requires creativity and innovative thought. An issue within computer science education, however, is that large introductory programming courses often involve little opportunity for creative thinking within coursework. The undergraduate introductory programming course (CS1) is notorious for its poor student performance and retention rates across multiple institutions. Integrating opportunities for creative thinking may help combat this issue by adding a personal touch to course content, which could allow beginner CS students to better relate to the abstract world of programming. Research on the role of creativity in computer science education (CSE) is an interesting area with a lot of room for exploration due to the complexity of the phenomenon of creativity as well as the CSE research field being fairly new compared to some other education fields where this topic has been more closely explored. To contribute to this area of research, this article provides a literature review exploring the concept of creativity as relevant to computer science education and CS1 in particular. Based on the review of the literature, we conclude creativity is an essential component to computer science, and the type of creativity that computer science requires is in fact, a teachable skill through the use of various tools and strategies. These strategies include the integration of open-ended assignments, large collaborative projects, learning by teaching, multimedia projects, small creative computational exercises, game development projects, digitally produced art, robotics, digital story-telling, music manipulation, and project-based learning. Research on each of these strategies and their effects on student experiences within CS1 is discussed in this review. Last, six main components of creativity-enhancing activities are identified based on the studies about incorporating creativity into CS1. These components are as follows: Collaboration, Relevance, Autonomy, Ownership, Hands-On Learning, and Visual Feedback. The purpose of this article is to contribute to computer science educators’ understanding of how creativity is best understood in the context of computer science education and explore practical applications of creativity theory in CS1 classrooms. This is an important collection of information for restructuring aspects of future introductory programming courses in creative, innovative ways that benefit student learning.

Computer Science Education Research

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabela de Jesus Gomes ◽  
António José Mendes ◽  
Maria José Marcelino
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Science Education Research ◽  
Introductory Programming ◽  
Computer Science Education Research ◽  
Introductory Programming Courses ◽  
Programming Courses

This chapter aims to present and summarize a variety of research areas that directly or indirectly have influenced Computer Science Education Research, particularly associated to the teaching and learning of programming. It is known that many students encounter a lot of difficulties in introductory programming courses. Possible reasons for these difficulties are discussed and some existing proposals in the literature are presented. Based on this discussion, the chapter also includes a description of work done at the University of Coimbra, trying to define more adequate pedagogical strategies for introductory programming courses. The results obtained and their implementation in a common undergraduate course are presented and discussed. The authors conclude that this new strategy makes learning more stimulating for the students, minimizes dropout intentions, and makes the students learn more and better. The chapter ends with suggestions of future research opportunities within the topic of teaching and learning of programming.

scholarly journals Helping to realize “computer science for all”: Student outcomes of self-pacing in introductory programming courses

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Lester
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Introductory Programming ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Introductory Programming Courses ◽  
Programming Courses

Sparked by a series of national campaigns to increase interest in computer science, computer science departments are inundated with students who are interested in learning how to program. Despite the interest, introductory computer science course have relatively low completion rates (approximately 55% at Mason) and high rates of academic integrity violations. In response to this environment, the Computer Science department at Mason received an external grant to redesign their introductory programming courses to a self-paced, flipped format. Implementation began in Fall 2015 with a quasi-experimental methodology that tracks students from an experimental course and a control group (those who took more traditional introductory CS courses) over the course of the semester. Data collected includes grades on assignments, self-report surveys, and classroom observations.  The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a self-paced, flipped curricular design in an introductory experiential computer science course on the immediate (in course) completion.   In this short lightning talk, we will present data from student surveys and classroom observations identifying any difference across the control and experimental groups. Preliminary results identify a significant increase in student completion upwards of a 20% difference across the groups. In addition to increasing knowledge of the impact of self-paced courses on student retention and success in computer science, we offer an alternative method to collect data on classroom observations via the Real-time Observation Classroom Application (ROCA). ROCA allows for efficient data collection and comparison of specific pedagogies to student engagement measures.  

scholarly journals Effective measures to foster girls’ interest in secondary computer science education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Happe ◽  
Barbora Buhnova ◽  
Anne Koziolek ◽  
Ingo Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Primary And Secondary Education ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Effective Interventions

AbstractThe interest of girls in computing drops early during primary and secondary education, with minimal recovery in later education stages. In combination with the growing shortage of qualified computer science personnel, this is becoming a major issue, and also a target of numerous studies that examine measures, interventions, and strategies to boost girls’ commitment to computing. Yet, the results of existing studies are difficult to navigate, and hence are being very rarely employed in classrooms. In this paper, we summarize the existing body of knowledge on the effective interventions to recruit and retain girls in computer science education, intending to equip educators with a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate map of interventions recommended in the existing literature. To this end, we perform an aggregated umbrella literature review of 11 existing reviews on the topic, together accumulating joined knowledge from over 800 publications, and formulate the findings in a map of 22 concrete interventions structured in six groups according to their phase and purpose.

scholarly journals Project-based learning in student teams in computer science education

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Breiter ◽  
Görschwin Fey ◽  
Rolf Drechsler
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Student Team

Designing information systems according to user requirements is crucial for software developers. In computer science education, acquiring necessary social skills to elicit and define those requirements is underdeveloped. We introduce a student-centered, project-based learning approach with a student team project, which tries to support these learning processes. Based on existing examples for project-based learning in other disciplines, the didactical concept and the integration into the curriculum are explained. Using two exemplary student team projects, the core learning processes are described. This approach allows students to explore methods for project management as well as requirements analysis and participatory design with real end-users. The results of the project according to student evaluation are presented and conclusions about the value added of student team projects for computer science education are drawn.

scholarly journals A Systematic Literature Review of Gameful Feedback in Computer Science Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 464-470
Author(s):  
Nico Willert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Summative Feedback ◽  
Game Elements

For the past decade, video game- and gamification-elements get used in different fields of research. However, a contextualized usage of these elements is still underrepresented in the current research. For that reason, this research tries to identify contextualized game-elements in e-learning environments for computer science education. A systematic literature review examines the current overlap of feedback in computer science education by the use of game-elements. The relevant papers were identified by a combination of search-terms and analyzed according to a defined scope, that focuses on formative and summative feedback. In a nutshell, the majority of provided feedback in computer science education, that is not just given by an instructor, is often implemented by automated code tests. These are supported through techniques to monitor the performance of the student and their progress towards the set goal. Game- or gamification-elements do play a subordinate role, when providing feedback and are often just to enhance the monitoring process.

Fostering Practical Developers in Computer Science Classrooms

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-87
Author(s):  
Yin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Computer Science Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Visual Programming ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Science Classrooms

Real-life software development requires practical developers. This chapter discusses the challenges put by real-life software development on computer science education of modern universities, and how to face these challenges by changing traditional teaching and learning to a PBL-based approach. Based on a literature review on PBL theories, methods and tools, and observations made in classrooms and group rooms at Aalborg University, this chapter discusses possible aspects to consider when changing traditional computer science classrooms. A case is then used to demonstrate the process of changing traditional teaching and learning of a computer science course named Visual Programming and Applications to a PBL-based approach.

scholarly journals Comparison of C++ and Java in Implementing Introductory Programming Algorithms

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shumail Naveed
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Algorithms ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Programming Languages ◽  
Software Metrics ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
Introductory Programming ◽  
Java Programming ◽  
Programming Algorithms ◽  
Introductory Programming Courses ◽  
Programming Courses

Computer programming is the heart of computer science and C++ and Java are the most popular and widely used languages. The performance of C++ and Java programming languages has been benchmarked using robotics, numerical, genetic and evolutionary algorithms, but not using introductory programming algorithms. This article examined C++ and Java by analysing the implementation of novice algorithms of introductory programming courses by evaluating the difficulty, effort, time and delivered bugs of programs with Halstead software metrics. The study identified that Java is more difficult than C++ in the implementation of selected algorithms. Similarly, the efforts required to translate the novice algorithms in Java are higher than C++. The time involved in translating selected algorithms in C++ is lower than Java. Similarly, the number of delivered bugs in C++ is lower than Java. The study suggests that C++ is more suitable than Java for the implementation of introductory programming algorithms and reasonably more suitable for introductory programming courses. The study emboldens the programming linguists to do further analyses in contemplating other programming languages with Halstead software metrics and other kinds of algorithms.

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