Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Education, beyond Floor Robots

  • Juan Francisco Álvarez Herrero
    Departamento de Didáctica General y Didácticas Específicas, Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Alicante juanfran.alvarez[at]ua.es

Abstract

Educational robotics, programming and computational thinking are being incorporated in the classrooms of many educational centres and at any age. In many cases, this incorporation in the curricula is well-argued and documented, but in other cases, it is done in a rash manner and without prior reflection. In Early Childhood Education, the development of computational thinking seems to have found in floor robots a tool that allows its improvement and progress. To verify if this is so, 50 experts (active teachers, trainers of future teachers and commercial technicians of educational robotics) from all over Spain were tested. The results show that although there is a high percentage of considering floor robots as an excellent tool for the development of computational thinking in Early Childhood Education, there is no consensus when using other types of practices that go beyond and also benefit this learning process. Therefore, we consider it necessary to establish a common framework and guidelines that allow the correct implementation of robotics, programming and computational thinking in Early Childhood Education. Furthermore, this is based on offering quality training to develop these concepts.
  • Referencias
  • Cómo citar
  • Del mismo autor
  • Métricas
Adell, J. S., Llopis, M. A. N., Esteve, M. F. M. y Valdeolivas, N. M. G. (2019). El debate sobre el pensamiento computacional en educación. RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 22(1), 171-186. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ried.22.1.22303

Ally, M. (2007). Mobile Learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 8(2). Recuperado a partir de: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/451/926

Angeli, C., Voogt, J., Fluck, A., Webb, M., Cox, M., Malyn-Smith, J., y Zagami, J. (2016). A K-6 Computational Thinking Curriculum Framework- Implications for Teacher Knowledge. Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 47-57.

Bers, M. (2008). Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom. Nueva York: Teachers College Press.

Bers, M.U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E.R. y Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum. Computers & Education, 72, 145-157. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.020

Buitrago, F., Casallas, R., Hernández, M., Reyes, A., Restrepo, S. y Danies, G. (2017). Changing a generation's way of thinking: Teaching computational thinking through programming. Review of Educational Research, 87(4), 834-860. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654317710096

da Silva, M.G. y González-González, C.S. (2017). PequeBot: Propuesta de un Sistema Ludificado de Robótica Educativa para la Educación Infantil. En Actas del V Congreso Internacional de Videojuegos y Educación (CIVE'17). Recuperado a partir de: https://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/6677

Eguchi, A. (2016). Computational Thinking with Educational Robotics. In G. Chamblee & L. Langub (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 79-84). Savannah, GA, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Recuperado a partir de: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/172306/

Espinosa, C. y Gregorio, M. (2018). La Robótica en Educación Infantil. Publicaciones Didácticas, 90, 282-288. Recuperado a partir de: https://publicacionesdidacticas.com/hemeroteca/pd_090_ene.pdf

Estebanell, M., González, J., Peracaula, M., y López, V. (2017). About the concept of Computational Thinking and its educational potentialities by pre-service teachers. In López Chova, L., López Martínez, A., & Candel Torres, I. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2017 EduLearn 9th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (pp. 6624-6630). Barcelona: EDULEARN. doi: https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2017.2510

García, J. M. y Castrillejo, D. (2011). Los Robots como excusa. En El modelo CEIBAL. Nuevas tendencias para el aprendizaje (pp. 300-333). Montevideo: ANEP-CEIBAL. Recuperado a partir de: https://www.anep.edu.uy/sites/default/files/images/Archivos/publicaciones/plan-ceibal/el%20modelo%20ceibal%20nuevas%20tendencias%20para%20el%20aprendizaje.pdf

García-Valcárcel, A. y Caballero, Y.A. (2019). Robótica para desarrollar el pensamiento computacional en Educación Infantil. Comunicar, 59(27), 63-72. doi: https://doi.orgg/10.3916/C59-2019-06

González, J., Estebanell, M. y Peracaula, M. (2018). ¿Robots o programación? El concepto de Pensamiento Computacional y los futuros maestros. Education in the Knowledge Society (EKS), 19(2), 29-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.14201/eks20181922945

González-González, C.S. (2019a). Estado del arte en la enseñanza del pensamiento computacional y la programación en la etapa infantil. Education in the Knowledge Society, 20, 17-(1-15). doi: http://doi.org/10.14201/eks2019_20_a17

González-González, C.S. (2019a). Estrategias para la enseñanza del pensamiento computacional y uso efectivo de tecnologías en educación infantil: una propuesta inclusiva. RiiTE - Revista Interuniversitaria de Investigación en Tecnología Educativa, 7, 85-97. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/riite.405171

Komis, V. y Misirli, A. (2016). The environments of educational robotics in Early Childhood Education: towards a didactical analysis. Educational Journal of the University of Patras UNESCO Chair, 3(2), 238-246. doi: https://doi.org/10.26220/une.2751

Lockwood, J. y Mooney, A. (2017). Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review. arXiv:1703.07659v3. Recuperado a partir de: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.07659

Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD) (2018). Programación, robótica y pensamiento computacional en el aula. Situación en España. Recuperado a partir de: http://code.intef.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pensamiento-Computacional-Fase-1-Informe-sobre-la-situaci%c3%b3n-en-Espa%c3%b1a.pdf

Miranda-Pinto, M.S., Monteiro, A.F., y Osório, A.J. (2017). Potencialidades e fragilidades de robôs para crianças em idade pré-escolar (3 a 6 anos). Revista Observatório, 3, 302-330. doi: https://doi.org/10.20873/uft.2447-4266.2017v3n4p302

Pérez-Paredes, P. y Zapata-Ros, M. (2018). El pensamiento computacional, análisis de una competencia clave. New York: Create Space Independent Publishing.

Ramírez-Benavides, K. Y Guerrero, L.A. (2014). MODEBOTS: Entorno de Programación de Robots para Niños con Edades entre 4-6 Años. VAEP-RITA - Versión Abierta Español-Portugués, 2(3), 139-146.

Recio, S. (2019). Experiencias robóticas en Infantil. RiiTE - Revista Interuniversitaria de Investigación en Tecnología Educativa, 7, 73-84. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/riite.399641

Reina, M. y Reina, S. (2017). Desarrollo de la Competencia Digital en educación infantil. Madrid: ANAYA.

Resnick, M. y Rosenbaum, E. (2013). Designing for tinkerability. In M. Honey & D.E. Kanter (Eds.), Design, make, play: Growing the next generation of STEM innovators (pp.163-181). New York: Routledge.

Sullivan, A. y Bers, M.U. (2016). Robotics in the early childhood classroom: Learning outcomes from an 8-week robotics curriculum in pre-kindergarten through second grade. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 26(1), 3-20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9304-5

Vivet, M. y Nonnon, P. (1989). Actes du Premier Congrès Francophone de Robotique Pédagogique. Le Mans: Université du Maine.

Voogt, J., Fisser, P., Good, J., Mishra, P., y Yadav, A. (2015). Computational thinking in compulsory education: Towards an agenda for research and practice. Education and Information Technologies, 20(4), 715-728. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9412-6

Wing, J.M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35. doi: http://doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215

Yadav, A., Gretter, S., Good, J., y Mclean, T. (2017). Computational Thinking in Teacher Education. In Spector, M., Bishop, M. J., y Ifenthaler, D. (Eds.), Emerging Research, Practice, and Policy on Computational Thinking (pp. 205-220). Bloomington (IN, US): Springer. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52691- 1

Zapata-Ros, M. (2015). Pensamiento computacional: Una nueva alfabetización digital. RED-Revista de Educación a Distancia, 46(4), 1-47. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/red/46/4

Zapata-Ros, M. (2018). Pensamiento computacional. Una tercera competencia clave. (I). Blog RED El aprendizaje en la Sociedad del Conocimiento. Recuperado a partir de: https://red.hypotheses.org/1059

Zapata-Ros, M. (2019). Computational Thinking Unplugged. Education in the Knowledge Society, 20, 18-(1-29). doi: http://doi.org/10.14201/eks2019_20_a18
Álvarez Herrero, J. F. (2020). Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Education, beyond Floor Robots. Education in The Knowledge Society, 21, 11. https://doi.org/10.14201/eks.22366

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Publication Facts

Metric
This article
Other articles
Peer reviewers 
2
2.4

Reviewer profiles  N/A

Author statements

Author statements
This article
Other articles
Data availability 
N/A
16%
External funding 
N/A
32%
Competing interests 
N/A
11%
Metric
This journal
Other journals
Articles accepted 
21%
33%
Days to publication 
178
145

Indexed in

Editor & editorial board
profiles
Academic society 
N/A
Publisher 
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca

Author Biography

Juan Francisco Álvarez Herrero

,
Departamento de Didáctica General y Didácticas Específicas, Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Alicante
Departamento de Didáctica General y Didácticas Específicas, Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Alicante
+