Introducing Computational Thinking Unplugged in Early Childhood Education Within the Context of Physical and Natural Science Courses

2022 ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Michail Kalogiannakis ◽  
Kalliopi Kanaki
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Educational Framework ◽  
Second Grade Students

In the contemporary digital era, introducing computational thinking concepts is considered an imperative need at all stages of schooling, since they are inextricably linked to skills applicable and beneficial in everyday life. This chapter presents a novel educational framework that aims to foster the growth of computational thinking at early childhood stages, within the context of physical and natural science courses, pursuing the unplugged philosophy and following the principles of game-based, project-based and collaborative learning. This chapter also presents a relevant pilot study, conducted with second grade students of a Greek primary school, with the objective of assessing the feasibility of the proposed educational framework, as well as examining its effectiveness. The results stemming from the pilot are promising and reveal that the proposed approach serves our goal to enhance computational thinking at the first stages of schooling through engaging and fun educational activities that appeal to young students.

Introducing Computational Thinking Unplugged in Early Childhood Education Within the Context of Physical and Natural Science Courses

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michail Kalogiannakis ◽  
Kalliopi Kanaki
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Educational Framework ◽  
Second Grade Students

In the contemporary digital era, introducing computational thinking concepts is considered an imperative need at all stages of schooling, since they are inextricably linked to skills applicable and beneficial in everyday life. This chapter presents a novel educational framework that aims to foster the growth of computational thinking at early childhood stages, within the context of physical and natural science courses, pursuing the unplugged philosophy and following the principles of game-based, project-based and collaborative learning. This chapter also presents a relevant pilot study, conducted with second grade students of a Greek primary school, with the objective of assessing the feasibility of the proposed educational framework, as well as examining its effectiveness. The results stemming from the pilot are promising and reveal that the proposed approach serves our goal to enhance computational thinking at the first stages of schooling through engaging and fun educational activities that appeal to young students.

Effect of a six-week dance-based physical education intervention on primary school children’s creativity: A pilot study

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Ross D Neville ◽  
Kyriaki Makopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
School Context ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Second Grade Students ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Post Assessment

There is international consensus that creativity is a fundamental outcome of schooling. Opportunities exist to enhance the creativity of schoolchildren, particularly in movement-based subjects such as physical education (PE). In this pilot study, we investigated the effect of a six-week dance-based PE intervention on children’s creativity in a primary school context. Forty second grade students participated in a controlled trial. One class ( n = 20) was assigned to the intervention and participated in dance-based PE lessons (10 girls, 10 boys; age 7–8 years). The other class ( n = 20) was assigned to the control condition and continued regular PE with no dance (10 girls, 10 boys; age 7–8 years). Pre–post assessment of creativity was obtained through an adapted version of Guilford’s (1967) Alternative Uses task. Data were analysed using linear mixed models, with adjustment made for children’s perceived dance ability and for baseline differences in creativity between groups. The overall effect of the intervention was small ( d = 0.36, 95%CI = –0.21 to 0.92), but not statistically significant ( p = 0.21). Post-hoc analysis revealed a large difference in the effect of the intervention between children with above and below-average baseline creativity ( d = 1.26, 95%CI = 0.14 to 2.39, p = 0.03). Children with above-average creativity at baseline benefitted more ( d = 0.99, 95%CI = 0.01 to 1.96, p = 0.047). This pilot study provides further support for the place of dance and creativity within the PE curriculum. However, particular attention should be given to students’ starting points.

Multiple Representations in Computational Thinking Tasks: A Clinical Study of Second-Grade Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara J. Moore ◽  
Sean P. Brophy ◽  
Kristina M. Tank ◽  
Ruben D. Lopez ◽  
Amanda C. Johnston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Study ◽  
Multiple Representations ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Second Grade Students

scholarly journals Increasing Access to Online Learning for Students With Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 002246692199806
Author(s):  
Ji Young Kim ◽  
Daniel M. Fienup
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Task Analysis ◽  
Online Intervention ◽  
Multiple Baseline ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Multiple Baseline Design ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Baseline Design ◽  
Second Grade Students

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were alarming reports of children missing out on online special educational activities due to a lack of access to those resources. We evaluated a simple, online intervention using a concurrent multiple baseline design across three second-grade students with disabilities who unreliably accessed the remote curriculum. The dependent variable was the number of daily assignments completed. During baseline, the teacher provided students and parents with educational activities via Google Classroom and the teacher contacted parents when a student missed educational activities. For intervention, the teacher implemented a task analysis that listed five daily assignments. Students earned preferred rewards contingent on completing all activities. Results showed that the intervention was effective in increasing engagement in online learning.

scholarly journals Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children’s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

10.28945/3547 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 145-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Sullivan ◽  
Marina Umashi Bers
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
Better Than

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood technology interventions exist. This pilot study looks at N=45 children in kindergarten through second grade who completed an eight-week robotics and programming curriculum using the KIWI robotics kit. KIWI is a developmentally appropriate robotics construction set specifically designed for use with children ages 4 to 7 years old. Qualitative pre-interviews were administered to determine whether participating children had any gender-biased attitudes toward robotics and other engineering tools prior to using KIWI in their classrooms. Post-tests were administered upon completion of the curriculum to determine if any gender differences in achievement were present. Results showed that young children were beginning to form opinions about which technologies and tools would be better suited for boys and girls. While there were no significant differences between boys and girls on the robotics and simple programming tasks, boys performed significantly better than girls on the advanced programming tasks such as, using repeat loops with sensor parameters. Implications for the design of new technological tools and curriculum that are appealing to boys and girls are discussed.

scholarly journals The Acquisition of Computational Thinking through Mentoring: An Exploratory Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Núria Cervera ◽  
Pascual D. Diago ◽  
Lara Orcos ◽  
Dionisio F. Yáñez
Keyword(s):  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Second Grade Students ◽  
Study Methodology ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Teaching Learning

Educational robotics are commonly present in kindergarten and primary school classrooms, particularly Bee-bot. Its ease of use allows the introduction of computer programming to young children in educational contexts from a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) perspective. Despite this rise, there are still few investigations that collect evidence on the effectiveness of robotic interventions. Although mentoring experiences with robotics had been carried out in educational contexts, this work explores their effect on the acquisition of computational thinking skills through mentoring. Participants from the second grade, aged seven through eight years, were exposed to two sessions of robotics with Bee-bot in order to promote hands-on experimentation. The sessions were conducted by nine students of the fourth grade (the mentors), aged 10 to 11 years. A descriptive case-study methodology was employed for the analysis of the mentoring intervention. The effect of the mentoring experience was assessed in terms of motivation and computational thinking skills. Mixed quantitative and qualitative results show two important findings: (i) Mentoring is a powerful tool to be considered for improvement of the motivation and cooperation of students in their teaching–learning process, and (ii) computational thinking skills can be acquired by second-grade students through a mentoring process.

Agreeableness, Conflict Resolution Tactics, and School Behavior in Second Graders

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Gadke ◽  
Renée M. Tobin ◽  
W. Joel Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Adaptive Behaviors ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
School Behavior ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
School Based ◽  
Second Grade Students ◽  
Negotiation Tactics

Abstract. This study examined the association between Agreeableness and children’s selection of conflict resolution tactics and their overt behaviors at school. A total of 157 second graders responded to a series of conflict resolution vignettes and were observed three times during physical education classes at school. We hypothesized that Agreeableness would be inversely related to the endorsement of power assertion tactics and to displays of problem behaviors, and positively related to the endorsement of negotiation tactics and to displays of adaptive behaviors. Consistent with hypotheses, Agreeableness was inversely related to power assertion tactics and to displays of off-task, disruptive, and verbally aggressive behaviors. There was no evidence that Agreeableness was related to more socially sophisticated responses to conflict, such as negotiation, with our sample of second grade students; however, it was related to displays of adaptive behaviors, specifically on-task behaviors. Limitations, including potential reactivity effects and the restriction of observational data collection to one school-based setting, are discussed. Future researchers are encouraged to collect data from multiple sources in more than one setting over time.

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