Independent evaluation of Code Club: A part of Raspberry Pi Foundation

Code Club ,part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is a network of free, extracurricular coding clubs for young people in schools. This study is an evaluation of the impact of Code Club on pupils’ attitudes to programming and computational skills during the primary and early secondary school years in their education. Durham University Evidence Centre for Education, part of Durham University, are leading this evaluation.

The study will answer following research questions:

• What is the impact of Code Club on pupils’ learning of programming and codes?
• What is the impact of Code Club on pupils’ non-cognitive skills (e.g. motivation, confidence, enjoyment, engagement, problem solving, resilience, planning and teamwork, and critical thinking skills)?

Phase 1 – development of the evaluation

Building on existing work, we will conduct a rapid review of the existing literature worldwide on code clubs and similar programmes assessing the effectiveness, approaches and the instruments used to evaluate the impact.

We will identify viable outcomes that could be assessed.

We will develop and adapt most appropriate and feasible instrument for evaluation.

We will refine the research questions further, making them specific and answerable.

We will design the evaluation for Phase 2.

Phase 2 – impact and process evaluation

The precise design will be an outcome from Phase 1, and will be shaped to some extent by the Code Club Theory of Change as provided by the Foundation.