Creative Choice in Fifth Grade Computing Curriculum

We examine the effects of creative choice in fifth grade computer science curriculum on students' engagement/preferences, performance, and self-efficacy (n=107). This work is rooted in evaluating creativity as a tool to increase engagement in elementary school computer science education by studying a group of one hundred fifth grade students at a public charter school in California. The work occurred within a year long computing curriculum focused on introducing students to programming. To experimentally evaluate creative choice over a six week period, we created several instances of two variants of worksheets for the students - creative worksheets and more rigid worksheets, alternating control and experimental groupings. After the treatment, surveys and quizzes were used to evaluate students' experiences and learning. We found that students benefit from a blend of creative and structured instructions and can feel a sense of ownership with even limited versions of creative choice. In addition, student performance was not affected by our different treatments.