Reviewing Constructivist Theories to Help Foster Creativity in Programming Education

In cognitive psychology, creativity is an established and well-researched construct. Creativity is linked to openness to experience, and creating innovative solutions. It is this synthesis of prior knowledge and experience that reflects the core ideas of constructivist learning theory. Recently, the investigation and measurement of students’ creative capacities has gained traction in computing. Although being creative is important in the solution of programming problems, creativity is neither embedded in computing curricula as a learning objective, nor established in competency-based educational practice. Assuming that creativity is a malleable component of competency, the present paper aims at investigating constructivist theories to help foster creativity as part of programming competency in computing. Accordingly, learning theories from Piaget, Vygotskiy, Bruner and Dewey were reviewed with regard to their perspective on human learning and the creation of new knowledge through connections. Their review and alignment with the context of programming education results in recommendations for pedagogical interventions, such as collaborative project work, social interaction, scaffolding, active learning, multi-sensory experiences, gamification, and authentic tasks. As a next step, these pedagogical approaches will be investigated with regard to their effects on the creativity of novice learners of programming.