**2. Conceptual framework of creativity**

Creativity starts from the idea of contrasting divergent and convergent thinking. According to Guilford [7], convergent thinking operates within established patterns, approaches the problem with a certain method and, through the latter, and finds the only possible solution. However, using divergent thinking outside the established patterns allows one to approach the problem with a fresh perspective, arriving at original solutions and identifying the creative process with the typical dynamics of problem-solving. Thus, divergent thinking is expressed in not only the search for exact solutions but also in the multiplicity and originality of the answers given, the richness of ideas, and the restructuring of the subject matter.

Various models have been developed to explain the mechanism that regulates or from which creativity originates, including the factorials (cognitivist-oriented) models, which consider creative thinking to be an articulated unit that can be broken down into parts called factors and identified through surveys and statistical analysis [8–10].

Sternberg and Lubart [11] carried out a comprehensive survey of the landscape of creativity studies and observed that historically, this line of research has faced several obstacles, probably due to a broad cultural legacy that regarded creativity as something "mystical" and unexplainable.

According to these studies, creativity consists of the "ability to produce something new (original, unexpected) and appropriate (useful, adaptable to the set task)," thus elaborating the investment theory of creativity [12].

Finally, Resnick [13], analyzing the ways in which children learn, seeks to identify and enhance the creative dimension as the key to meeting and overcoming the challenge facing today's children to become tomorrow's adults.

As Resnick argues in the TED Talk "Let's teach kids to code" (https://www.ted. com/talks/mitch\_resnick\_let\_s\_teach\_kids\_to\_code), when children create a coding project, they also learn to program; however, more importantly, they also program to learn. Because by learning to program, they learn a thousand other things, thus opening up new learning opportunities.

From these considerations, Resnick opens up to the view of the learning process represented as a "spiral of creative learning" (**Figure 1**): exploration of the world (and consequent knowledge) occurs through manipulating objects and experimenting, building things and testing their functionality, reasoning by prototypes and identifying errors…all ways in which children learn and through which they develop knowledge of the fundamental laws of the environment in which they live.

This should be the training ground for exercising creative thinking throughout life, during which each individual must continue to learn to exist in the world. Imagining, creating, experimenting, sharing, and reflecting should be the stages of

#### **Figure 1.**

*Resnick's spiral of creativity. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/37920982305. Author: Wesley Fryer. License: CC-BY 2.0.*

a process to be reproduced continuously, the cyclical repetition of a sequence (to use an appropriate metaphor, in terms of programming) to be applied and cultivated throughout life, as the inexhaustible engine of one's learning process.

Resnick [14] goes further to think about how design that works with coding and creativity can work. This led to the 4P model, which consists of designing teaching around four key words: Project, Peer, Passion, and Play. The four P indicate:


From this perspective, coding should be introduced in school as a cross-curricular activity precisely because cross-curricular is the skill it enables. Computational thinking does not require technology, and it precedes technology.

The adoption of coding as an activity to exemplify concepts, describe procedures, solve problems, and find solutions can be entrusted to teachers of any discipline; in fact, this activity does not require specific computer skills, as it provides an interdisciplinary perspective, combining creativity and imagination with logic and mathematics.

Learning to be effective must be meaningful [15], which means it must motivate and engage pupils actively, bringing both logical and creative competence to bear.
