"My Cars Don't Drive Themselves": Preschoolers' Guided Play Experiences With Programmable Robots

• In Event: Computing and Robotics in Early Education

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) is considered an essential skill for children to develop, yet conceptual, practical, and empirical work with preschool-age children is scarce. A particular gap 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, this study draws upon the Mosaic Approach to explore preschool children’s experiences and emergence of CT when simple programmable robots are introduced into their guided play. Participants included 29 preschool-age children from an ECE center in the northeastern U.S. Data sources include audio-visual, observations, child conferences, and child-generated artifacts. Children’s initial CT perspectives will be demonstrated and described and results from their experiences will also be shared.

Authors

• Jacob A. Hall, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Kate McCormick, SUNY - College at Cortland