Editorial — Special Issue on Computational Thinking and Coding in Childhood

Abstract

This Special Issue on Computational Thinking and Coding in Childhood brings together ten articles addressing the topic from a range of perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds. Amid increased international interest in younger children's engagement with computer science and programming, many questions remain about how to provide tools, environments and curricula that embody appropriate progression and engender motivation for these topics across the years. The papers in this volume address and discuss a number of these questions, as well as raising important new questions.

Investigating Preschool Educators’ Implementation of Computer Programming in Their Teaching Practice

“…Contemporary discussions around programming in childhood education often draw from Papert's (1980) ideas of procedural thinking, and as a result of Wing's (2006) influential paper, have manifested in the idea of computational thinking (CT). CT is framed as central in relation to early childhood programming education (Howland et al 2018). According to Wing (2006), CT promotes thinking like a computer scientist when having to solve problems and is deemed a universal competence that is important for all children in the twenty-first century.…”

“…Research on computational thinking and the use of digital (and non-digital) tools in supporting the teaching of programming is still developing at the preschool level (Howland et al 2018). More specifically, little is known about what exact activities and systematic strategies are being adopted during preschool educational practice (Palmér 2017).…”

“…The last decade has seen major attention directed towards the integration of programming activities in preschool classrooms, where notions of "digital literacy" and/or "computational thinking" form part of many education policy agendas. This trend is due both to political emphasis placed on the need for digitally literate citizens as well as on the necessity to adapt educational practices in a society that is becoming increasingly dependent on digital technologies (Howland et al 2018).…”

Datorplattor i en förskolekontext : med fokus på teknikundervisning inklusive programmering

“…Forskning pekar på att det är viktigt att tillgodogöra sig digital kompetens för att kunna delta i ett samhälle som blir allt mer digitaliserat och beroende av programmering och digital teknik (Bers, 2018(Bers, , 2019Howland, Good, Robertson, & Manches, 2019). Förskolan utgör här en viktig arena, inte minst för att erbjuda alla barn en god grund för deras framtida liv och utjämna skillnader mellan barnen i form av kön och social bakgrund (Kress, 2003).…”

“…[...] a broad problem-solving framework involving skills, processes, and approaches to solve problems, and programming as a key practice for supporting and cultivating the cognitive tasks involved in computational thinking (Ching et al, 2018, s. 564). Papert (1980) var den förste att använda detta, i (utbildnings) programmeringssammanhang, centrala och välanvända begrepp (Heintz, Mannila & Färnqvist, 2016;Howland et al, 2019). Dock var det Wing (2006) som med sina texter såg till att termen fick en vid spridning (Heikkilä & Mannila, 2018).…”