Class
Article
College
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
Department
School of Teacher Education and Leadership
Faculty Mentor
Jessica Shumway
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Computational thinking (CT) is a research topic that has garnered increased interest, however investigation of CT amongst early childhood populations is sparse. Recent research suggests that coding toys present beneficial CT learning opportunities for young students. The purpose of this study is to explore 1) kindergarten students' first- and third-person perspectives as they interact with coding toys, and 2) the influence of these perspectives on kindergarten students' CT skills. Four kindergarten students, aged 4-5, participated in five, 30-minute tasks with a Code-a-Pillar robot. The video-recorded final task in this series of five tasks was the main data source for this study. Each student's varying abilities to engage in an allocentric (3rd person) or egocentric (1st person) perspective were analyzed. An iterative coding process was employed to explore the students' CT knowledge and skills within each perspective. The results we will report include 1) students' engagement in allocentric and egocentric perspectives while interacting with coding toy tasks, and 2) the CT knowledge and skills that emerged within each perspective. These findings highlight how kindergarten students' use of perspective relates to their CT knowledge and skills while engaging in a coding toy task, which has important implications for teachers' implementation of instructional tasks using coding toys.
Location
Room 208
Start Date
4-11-2019 12:00 PM
End Date
4-11-2019 1:15 PM
Included in
An Exploration of Kindergarten Students' Use of Perspective and Computational Thinking
Room 208
Computational thinking (CT) is a research topic that has garnered increased interest, however investigation of CT amongst early childhood populations is sparse. Recent research suggests that coding toys present beneficial CT learning opportunities for young students. The purpose of this study is to explore 1) kindergarten students' first- and third-person perspectives as they interact with coding toys, and 2) the influence of these perspectives on kindergarten students' CT skills. Four kindergarten students, aged 4-5, participated in five, 30-minute tasks with a Code-a-Pillar robot. The video-recorded final task in this series of five tasks was the main data source for this study. Each student's varying abilities to engage in an allocentric (3rd person) or egocentric (1st person) perspective were analyzed. An iterative coding process was employed to explore the students' CT knowledge and skills within each perspective. The results we will report include 1) students' engagement in allocentric and egocentric perspectives while interacting with coding toy tasks, and 2) the CT knowledge and skills that emerged within each perspective. These findings highlight how kindergarten students' use of perspective relates to their CT knowledge and skills while engaging in a coding toy task, which has important implications for teachers' implementation of instructional tasks using coding toys.