Evaluation of an innovative mathematics and computing primary curriculum and professional development project

In this project, SIoE evaluated the impact of teaching pupils computer programming in ‘Scratch’, exploring the effects on pupils' mathematical attainment and computational thinking.

Scratch is a free online programming environment that was developed by MIT Media Lab. It enables children to programme by dragging and dropping code elements instead of typing them. Scratch is already used in many schools as an aid to computing lessons.

The development and delivery of the ScratchMaths curriculum and professional development project was undertaken by a team from University College London Institute of Education led by Richard Noss and Celia Hoyle. The project focused on Y5 and Y6 pupils and their teachers.

The Education Endowment Foundation funded Sheffield Hallam University to evaluate ScratchMaths by a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). Over 100 primary schools were involved in the evaluation either experiencing the innovation or in a control group. As part of the trial, SHU developed a test of computational thinking.

The evaluation report will be published in Summer 2018.

Please visit the EEF's and UCL IOE's ScratchMaths pages to find out more.