Evaluating a Course for Teaching Advanced Programming Concepts with Scratch to Preservice Kindergarten Teachers: A Case Study in Greece

Abstract

Coding is a new literacy for the twenty-first century, and as a literacy, coding enables new ways of thinking and new ways of communicating and expressing ideas, as well as new ways of civic participation. A growing number of countries, in Europe and beyond, have established clear policies and frameworks for introducing computational thinking (CT) and computer programming to young children. In this chapter, we discuss a game-based approach to coding education for preservice kindergarten teachers using Scratch. The aim of using Scratch was to excite students' interest and familiarize them with the basics of programming in an open-ended, project-based, and personally meaningful environment for a semester course in the Department of Preschool Education in the University of Crete. For 13 weeks, students were introduced to the main Scratch concepts and, afterward, were asked to prepare their projects. For the projects, they were required to design their own interactive stories to teach certain concepts about mathematics or physical science to preschool-age students. The results we obtained were more satisfactory than expected and, in some regards, encouraging if one considers the fact that the research participants had no prior experiences with computational thinking.

Understanding an Extension Technology Acceptance Model of Google Translation: A Multi-Cultural Study in United Arab Emirates

“…The outcomes of this study seem to be in line with previous studies by [63] and [64]. Similarly, the positive results that have been obtained concerning the positive role of motivation seem to agree with the previous studies, [65] and [66].…”

The Interactive Role Using the Mozabook Digital Education Application and its Effect on Enhancing the Performance of eLearning

“…This type is related to electronic means and information and communication networks, the most famous of which is the International Information Network (Internet), which has become an effective medium for electronic education". [12,13] referred to eLearning as "the use of technology and technological means in education by relying on them as an integrated educational system, and harnessing it to the student's self and collective learning and making it the focus of the educational process".…”

Reinforcing preschoolers’ phonemic awareness through the use of tablets

“…Think ppplane we need to find a word whose beginning sound is a, what about an angel?" Similar studies suggest that tablets provide increased learning motivation to students and render the learning process more entertaining and exciting as children are involved in a new way of learning with minimal effort and at their own will (Papadakis et al, , 2019.…”

“…Similarly, Gombert (1992) suggests that phonological awareness is children's ability to recognize phonological parts of language units to use them naturally. Over the last few years, devices with interactive screens such as tablets are being used by more and more young children due to their multiple uses and the intuitive interconnection based on touch (Papadakis & Kalogiannakis, 2019). However, few studies have been conducted on developing emerging literacy skills (Neumann, 2018) through such devices.…”

“…The integration of technology in education is predicated on science literacy, emphasizing a learning process based on the investigation (Kontrovourki & Tafa, 2019). The availability of affordable and portable smart devices provides the opportunity even to children under eight years from low-income family backgrounds to access smart mobile devices (smartphones -tablets) (Guernsey & Levine, 2016;Papadakis & Kalogiannakis, 2019). Besides, studies have illustrated that through the use of interactive touch screens and the participation in developmentally appropriate educational activities, children develop skills and abilities that exceed the expected perceptual and motor skills development of their age, improving preschoolers' anticipated learning results .…”