ERIC Number: EJ1336972
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-May
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
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ISSN: ISSN-8756-3894
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"My Cars Don't Drive Themselves": Preschoolers' Guided Play Experiences with Button-Operated Robots
TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, v66 n3 p510-526 May 2022
Computational thinking (CT) is considered an essential literacy skill for all children to develop, yet conceptual, practical, and empirical work with preschool-age children is scarce. A particular gap in the research is how CT instruction should be enacted (e.g., free play, guided play, levels of scaffolding, degree of child-initiated activities, and structure of programming tasks). Therefore, we aimed to describe what preschool children's CT experiences are like when button-operated robots are introduced into their guided play. This interpretive phenomenological study applied the Mosaic Approach to explore the emergence of CT skills during guided play with a button-operated robot (Bee-Bot). Participants were 29 preschool-age children from an early childhood education center in the northeastern United States. Data sources included audio-visual recordings, observations, child focus groups, and child-generated artifacts. The findings suggest children constructed meaning across the CT dimensions, connected with others through dialogue and negotiation, and used guidance from adults to extend their learning.
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Play, Robotics, Computation, Thinking Skills, Scaffolding (Teaching Technique), Child Care Centers, Learning Processes, Interpersonal Communication
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
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Language: English
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