Coding, creativity, and competence: preservice teachers’ learning through an online scratch club

Abstract

This study explored the experiences of three cohorts of preservice teachers who participated in an extracurricular online Scratch Coding Club (SCC). We were interested in exploring whether our assumption was valid that involvement in the SCC would enrich preservice teachers’ preparation for teaching (from their perspectives) and, if so, in what ways. The SCC’s goal was to develop key competencies like creative and critical thinking, collaboration, communication, computational thinking and digital fluency–skills essential for both teaching and the modern workforce. The club further offers hands-on, playful coding experiences, demonstrating how Scratch can foster creativity and positive emotions in the classroom. A qualitative interpretive research approach was adopted for this study due to the interest in how the individuals involved (the preservice teachers) made sense and meaning of their involvement with the SCC. The study revealed three main findings; firstly, preservice teachers valued the development of competencies, especially creativity; secondly, they gained valuable insights into teaching, particularly by using Scratch to enrich lessons; and lastly, their personal dispositions and life skills were enhanced.