Poster #12 - A Young Child's Dialogic Appropriation of Programmable Robots

• In Event: 43.081 - MTCC Poster Session Nine
  In Poster Session: 43.081-2 - Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning: A Survey of Research

Abstract

As an interpretive case study, we attempt to explore a 6-year-old boy’s dialogic appropriation of programmable robots. This study was situated in early childhood robotics education programs for young children, aged four to seven. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1981) dialogism and appropriation, the findings showed that the focal child engaged with the programmable robots by playing an active and agentive role in (a) transforming determined and given features of the robots, (b) reshaping the ways of programming practice, and (c) constructing his own concept of and perspective on the robots and programming. We emphasize that the focal child’s ways of understanding and engaging with the programmable robots went beyond mere adoption of the robots but rather took the form of dialogue.

Authors

• Sung Eun Jung, University of Arizona

• Kyung Hwa Lee, University of Georgia