The effect of block-based coding education enriched with intelligence games on students' innovative thinking skills

In this study, the effect of block-based coding education enriched with intelligence games on the innovative thinking skills of sixth grade middle school students was examined. In this study, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used and the application process lasted for six weeks. The study group of the research consisted of 31 students (experimental group=15; control group=16) studying in an official secondary school in Elazığ city center in the 2023-2024 academic year. The experimental group was provided with block-based coding training enriched with intelligence games along with the existing curriculum, while the control group received block-based coding training only within the existing curriculum. Before and after the experimental study, both the experimental group and the control group were administered the innovative thinking disposition scale for middle school students. Non-parametric tests; Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Mann Whitney-U test were used to analyze the data obtained in the study. The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test analysis of whether the innovative thinking skills of the experimental group students differed significantly before and after the experiment show that there is a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test scores in favor of the post-test. Pre-test and post-test scores of the students in the control group whether post-test innovative thinking skills differ significantly or not Wilcoxon signed-rank test analysis results showed that there is no significant difference between the scores of the students in the sub-dimensions of the scale and in the overall scale. According to the results of the Mann Whitney-U test for whether the innovative thinking skills of the experimental and control group students differed significantly, it was seen that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group post-test scores. The effect of this difference was found to be moderate. According to the results of the study, it was observed that the innovative thinking skill levels of sixth grade secondary school students increased with block-based coding education enriched with intelligence games.