Creativity is one of the most sought-after skills which can be stimulated since childhood. Despite schools being considered an environment that stimulates children’s creativity, a decline in creative skills is often reported when children begin primary school, referred to as “creativity crisis”. The use of technology seems to bring a new breath to the educational system, unlocking new doors for teaching and learning. Specifically, the development and use of social robots in classroom may bring new generation of possibilities to facilitate and develop creativity. In our work, we examined whether creativity would increase by involving children in one of two tasks: one as co-designers of robots (involved in the design of the personality expression for a non-humanlike robot), the other as programmers of robots (coding Dash and Dot robots using an app that runs on a tablet). A control group was used in which children were involved in music and singing improvisation. Results of the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) from 48 children (16 children per condition; 6-10 years old, M=7.47, SD=.786; 50% Females) were analyzed by two coders. The TCT-DP Form A was used as baseline of creativity to ensure all groups were homogeneous before the intervention and to adjust for individual differences. Analysis of TCT-DP difference scores (Form B minus Form A) showed significant differences between the intervention groups and the control condition, although the increase in creativity was stronger in the condition where the children programmed the robots than in the control condition.

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Co-design,Robots,Creativity,Human-robot interaction,Children,Programming