A concept mapping-based mobile storytelling approach for promoting students’ creative agency: An experimental study

There is research evidence that creative agency has attracted worldwide attention in mainstream education as it could foster learners’ active roles in taking control of their creative processes. However, without appropriate supporting tools, students may struggle to convey their ideas in complex creative practices. Digital storytelling and mobile technology are regarded as proper supportive tools to cultivate creative agency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. In addition, concept mapping could improve students’ creative thinking and knowledge activation. However, to the best of our knowledge, the effect of integrating mobile storytelling and concept mapping on promoting creative agency in EFL learning contexts remains unclear. Accordingly, this quasi-experimental study explored how a concept mapping-based mobile storytelling approach contributed to learners’ creative agency by examining 102 sixth-grade primary school students’ EFL performance and creative agency products, creative self-efficacy, agentic engagement, self-regulation, and motivation to learn English. The results of this study revealed that the experimental group with the concept mapping-guided mobile storytelling for creative agency approach outperformed the control group with the storyboard scaffolding-guided mobile storytelling for creative agency approach in all of the above aspects. This study provides new insights for teachers to motivate students’ creative agency in EFL learning from the process-oriented creativity and product-oriented perspectives (i.e., setting goals, designing creative plans with concept maps, reflecting on issues, and evaluating creation).