Getting Unstuck Together: Creating Personally Authentic Programming Projects in a 4th Grade Classroom

Background and Context
Learning to create self-directed and personally authentic programming projects involves encountering challenges and learning to get unstuck.

Objective
This article investigates how one U.S. fourth-grade classroom engaged in practices which emphasized community supports, in the context of the classroom’s implementation and testing of an upper elementary intermediate Scratch curriculum.

Method
We engaged in thematic analysis of classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, and student and teacher reflection journals, and student work.

Findings
We explore three interaction types: remixing others’ projects and ideas, asking for help and helping others, and talking about projects in class. Working on and talking about programming projects enabled learners to develop new understandings of themselves and their peers.

Implications
Teachers play a central role in designing structures which encourage the development of students’ individual creative capacity and the classroom’s sense of community. We offer considerations for designing engaging and collaborative experiences in elementary and intermediate computing education.