Navigating Our Places and Spaces: Traversing Pathways Between Geospatial Play and Computational Thinking

• In Event: Fostering Young Children's Computational Thinking

Abstract

Spatial thinking is what allows us to solve problems by manipulating, constructing, and navigating the paths of objects (Newcombe & Shipley, 2015). Although the relationship between spatial ability and computational thinking is well established in older children and adults (Newcombe, 2010; Uttal, Miller, & Newcombe, 2013), there is a paucity of research on how geospatial skills in early development enhance computational thinking. The National Research Council (2006) argued that “in terms of its power and pervasiveness, spatial thinking is on par with… mathematical or verbal thinking” (p. 25); however, researchers in geography education have debated about how, and at what level of instruction, to introduce students to these spatial-thinking skills.

We aim to provide insight as to how preschool children develop spatial reasoning and transversal competences (UNESCO, 2015), including problem solving, inquiry and computational thinking and communication skills as they play with tangible technologies. A project-based approach to geospatial teaching and learning provided a range of opportunities for children to investigate and rehearse understandings of maps within the context of a project that was of ‘real world’ interest to the children. The site was a university laboratory preschool where the tangible technology was purposefully integrated into the curriculum in 4 classrooms serving children ages 3-5 years old. Papert’s theory of constructionism guided the research as we observed how learners engage in conversation with artifacts and how those conversations increase self-directed learning and ultimately facilitate the learning of new knowledge (Ackermann, 2001).

This presentation will focus on the following research questions:
1. How does a tangible technology serve as an instrument through which children can construct knowledge about map reading and directionality when designing a pathway for travel?
2. How do young children develop and demonstrate transversal competencies for computational thinking when using maps and geospatial tangible technologies as part of play-based inquiry?
3. What roles do movement, gesture, and verbal expression play in scaffolding preschoolers’ understanding of spatial relationships?

Data sources include video documentation of preschoolers’ interactions that highlight the provocations, inquiry questioning, and focus language used by the educators and children as they integrated a tangible technology into the learning environment and programmed it to navigate paths. Through researcher site visits, teacher observations of children’s play, shared reflection and teacher generated stories of children’s learning, evidence emerged regarding the impact of the playful problem-solving experiences on children’s spatial reasoning.

The coupling of the tangible technologies with maps complemented and advanced children’s learning. These experiences facilitated embodied exploration of specific spatial concepts through the operationalization of actions by the tangible technology. Talking about spatial concepts, such as spatial features, relations, and orientations, was useful for children’s acquisition of spatial ideas. Moreover, while coding paths for the tangible technology, gesture and narrative (e.g., storytelling) had a scaffolding effect on spatial visualization and facilitated the development of more complex map skills. Overall, guided-play had an effective role for promoting early spatial learning when compared to free play or didactic play activities with tangible objects.

Authors

• Ilene R. Berson, University of South Florida

• Michael J. Berson, University of South Florida