The efficacy of a computer science curriculum for early childhood: evidence from a randomized controlled trial in K-2 classrooms

IF 3 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Computer Science Education Pub Date : 2023-11-10 DOI:10.1080/08993408.2023.2279198
Dandan Yang, Zhanxia Yang, Marina Umaschi Bers
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Abstract

ABSTRACTBackground and context Despite the growing importance of computer science (CS) education, high-quality CS curricula for students in kindergarten to lower elementary grades are lacking. It is also unclear how students from underrepresented groups such as female students, students from low socioeconomic status, and students with disability respond to CS curriculum at this age range.Objective This study is aimed to examine the effectiveness of a novel CS curriculum (Coding as Another Language – ScratchJr) on the development of programming and computational thinking skills for students in kindergarten to second grade classrooms.Method We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1057 students and used multilevel regression analysis to examine the impact of the CAL curriculum on students’ coding and computational thinking skills, as well as moderation analysis to investigate how students’ demographic characteristics including gender, socioeconomic status, English learners and disability interacted with the intervention effectiveness.Findings The CAL curriculum was effective in improving students’ programming skills, but no significant differences were detected for students’ computational thinking skills. Students with limited English proficiency and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds achieved similar gain in coding skills but students with disabilities and female students did not demonstrate the same improvements as their peers.Implications These findings shed light on the educational efficacy of CAL as a promising CS curriculum for young children and underscore the importance of understanding how underrepresented minority students respond to the curriculum in order to better guide the development and design of the CS programs.KEYWORDS: computer science educationearly childhoodelementary schoolcomputational thinkingcurriculum AcknowledgmentsWe would like to express our appreciation to the students and teachers who participated in the study, as well as the research assistants and researchers at the DevTech Research group. We would like to also thank the Shaffer Evaluation Group for supervising and monitoring the study design, data collection and evaluation. Additionally, we extend our sincere gratitude to the Scratch Foundation for their invaluable support.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Supplementary materialSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2023.2279198Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Department of Education IER program grant # U411C190006.
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儿童早期计算机科学课程的有效性:来自K-2教室随机对照试验的证据
摘要背景与背景尽管计算机科学(CS)教育的重要性日益提高,但针对幼儿园至小学低年级学生的高质量CS课程却缺乏。同样不清楚的是,来自代表性不足群体的学生,如女学生、社会经济地位低的学生和残疾学生,在这个年龄段对计算机科学课程的反应如何。目的本研究旨在考察新型计算机科学课程(Coding as Another Language - ScratchJr)对幼儿园至二年级学生编程和计算思维技能发展的影响。方法采用随机对照试验方法,对1057名学生进行多水平回归分析,考察CAL课程对学生编码和计算思维能力的影响,并采用调节性分析,考察学生的性别、社会经济地位、英语学习者和残疾等人口统计学特征与干预效果的交互作用。结果CAL课程能有效提高学生的编程能力,但对学生的计算思维能力无显著影响。英语水平有限的学生和社会经济背景较低的学生在编程技能方面取得了类似的进步,但残疾学生和女学生没有表现出与同龄人相同的进步。这些发现揭示了CAL作为一门有前途的幼儿计算机科学课程的教育功效,并强调了了解未被充分代表的少数民族学生对课程的反应的重要性,以便更好地指导计算机科学课程的开发和设计。关键词:计算机科学教育幼儿小学计算思维课程致谢我们要向参与这项研究的学生和老师,以及DevTech研究小组的研究助理和研究人员表示感谢。我们还要感谢Shaffer评估小组对研究设计、数据收集和评估的监督和监督。此外,我们对Scratch基金会的宝贵支持表示诚挚的感谢。披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。补充材料本文的补充数据可在https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2023.2279198Additional上在线获取信息。本工作由教育部IER项目资助# U411C190006支持。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Computer Science Education
Computer Science Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
6.90
自引率
3.70%
发文量
23
期刊介绍: Computer Science Education publishes high-quality papers with a specific focus on teaching and learning within the computing discipline. The journal seeks novel contributions that are accessible and of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. We invite work with learners of all ages and across both classroom and out-of-classroom learning contexts.
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