Educational Robotics Intervention to Foster Computational Thinking in Preschoolers: Effects of Children’s Task Engagement

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) is a broadly used term in education to refer to the cognitive processes underlying the application of computer science concepts and strategies of problem-solving. Recent literature has pointed out the value of children acquiring computational thinking skills (i.e., understanding and applying concepts, such as conditionals, iteration, or generalization), especially while learning STEM subjects. Robotics has been used as a tool to introduce computational thinking and STEM knowledge to children. As physical objects, robots have been proposed as developmentally appropriate for the early childhood setting, promoting motivation and allowing young learners to represent abstract ideas in a concrete setting. This study presents a novel educational robotics (ER) intervention using RoboTito, a robot programmable through tangible elements in its environment designed for kindergarteners. We used a quasi-experimental design with an active control group. In addition, we conducted a structured observation of the filmed material of the sessions to gather data on children’s attention and motivation throughout the activities. Fifty-one children (male = 33; mean age = 66 months, SD = 5.49 months) attending level 5 (kindergarten) at a Uruguayan public school participated in the study. Children in our experimental condition participated in an intervention programming RoboTito using tangible elements, while children in our control condition played with the robot through sensory-motor activities using a remote control and did not engage in programming. Motivational and attentional factors were assessed through video-recorded sessions of the ER activities. Four trained observers blind to the experimental conditions participated in the coding. Children’s interactions were assessed in four categories: task engagement, distractibility, oral participation, and objective fulfillment. Our results suggest children’s task engagement mediated their gains in CT after the intervention; post-hoc Tukey contrasts revealed non-significant pre-test to post-test gains for the control and low engagement groups, and significant for the high engagement group. Overall, we conclude task engagement played a central role in children’s learning gains and our robotics intervention was successful in promoting CT for engaged children. We discuss the practical implications of our results for early childhood education and developmentally appropriate ER targeted for young learners.

Use of Arduino in Primary Education: A Systematic Review

“…From this perspective, the integration of computer science into schools has two main objectives: to offer all students the possibility of accessing computer science and to improve the learning of subjects known as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) [12] by making the contents more authentic and relevant [13] and helping students with learning to break down a task into simpler ones, formulating and testing hypotheses, exploring and investigating, relating knowledge and coming up with original ideas or solutions. Thus, at a global level, different educational administrations have echoed this need in an increasingly digital world and are integrating computational thinking in their classrooms [14][15][16] as another competence that students must acquire from early childhood and primary education [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] through to secondary education [24][25][26][27].…”

Coding With Robots or Tablets? Effects of Technology-Enhanced Embodied Learning on Preschoolers’ Computational Thinking and Social-Emotional Competence

“…Research has identified the use of various technologies, such as coding robots and coding apps, to facilitate the development of CT in young children (Angeli & Valanides, 2020;Bakala et al, 2021Bakala et al, , 2023Papadakis, 2021;Yang, Luo, & Su, 2022). Gerosa et al (2022) and Yang, Ng, and Gao (2022) confirmed the success of coding robots like RoboTito and Matatalab in kindergarten CT learning, while Bers et al (2019) established that children as young as three can begin coding with the KIBO robotics kit.…”

Pentingnya Berpikir Komputasional dalam Pembelajaran Matematika

“…Pada tahun 2006, Jeannette Wing menerbitkan artikel berpengaruh, "Computational Thinking", yang menekankan pentingnya mengajarkan berpikir komputasional kepada siswa (Wing, 2006). Baru-baru ini, diakui bahwa berpikir komputasional dikaitkan dengan keterampilan pemecahan masalah di banyak domain lain (Gerosa et al, 2022;Tang et al, 2020). Misalnya, Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) dan International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) secara umum mendefinisikan berpikir komputasional sebagai kemampuan untuk memecahkan masalah dengan cara yang paling efisien dan efektif melalui pengorganisasian dan analisis data secara logis.…”