Three Drivers for Creativity in Computer Science Education

Research in the field of computer science education does not mention creativity very often. We believe that computer science (CS) in schools and universities can contribute a lot to the development of this treasured soft skill. This paper considers the role of creativity in CS from two perspectives: First, we believe that creativity is essential to CS. Second, CS makes it easy to be creative. Creativity is defined as something that leads to personal new, unique and useful ideas, solutions or insights. This view is shared by students of CS at the Univer-sity of Potsdam, who perceive CS as a creative domain but do not experience creativity in their studies. In research studies a lack of motivational factors was found causing unsatisfy-ing results in introductory programming courses. As the “optimal way ” for teaching program-ming has not been found yet, a part of the key to it may be creativity. Three drivers for crea-tivity in CS education (person, subject, information technology) are displayed in a model showing interrelations including related factors. Motivation and interest as factors connected with the creative person are essential to creative practice in CS. From studies with high-intrinsic motivated Open Source programmers the implications are drawn, that regarding us