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ERIC Number: EJ1297157
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-May
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-1013
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Embodied-Based Environment for Kindergarten Children: Revisiting Constructionist Ideas
British Journal of Educational Technology, v52 n3 p986-1003 May 2021
Constructionism has different meanings for what the learner is constructing, a concrete object or an idea, and whether this construction is done through the use of digital technology. In the embodied-based environment created in this study, children carry out or "construct" a series of actions, a performance, which allows them to solve the task of directing an already programmed robot to a particular target. The activity was based on an adaptation of the "Little Red Riding Hood" narrative. Children played the role of rangers (instead of hunters) who had to coordinate their actions in order to help a robot (an mBot characterized as a Robot-Wolf) find Grandma's laboratory, so she could fix its GPS. The children wore boots, which were used to interact with the Robot-Wolf. The main question we addressed was how to create this embodied-based environment for kindergarten children, and how to identify the actions children performed and the concepts they used in this construction. The research was based on the Socially-Aware Design, and the study was conducted in a school setting for kindergarten students. 26 children (11F, 15 M), between 4 and 5 years old, participated in this study. The children's activities were recorded and analysed using the Grounded Theory methodology. The results show that the children's performative sequence of actions is distinct from the hands-on, heads-in processes that are part of classical constructionist environments. For the children, the process and the product of their (body) "dance" were underlying their movement (perceiving and acting), working together so as to accomplish the given task in the environment.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A