Abstract:

Nowadays children are frequently exposed to technology from an early age, yet the focus often remains on teaching them how to use it rather than understanding how it functions. This approach is primarily attributed to the perception that programming concepts are too abstract and complex for children to understand. However, numerous studies, including the research presented in this paper, have demonstrated that children are capable to understand basic algorithms if provided with appropriate tools. It is crucial to actively encourage children, starting from kindergarten, through concrete and engaging activities, to develop their own logical, abstract, and computational thinking skills. These skills have many benefits for them, not only in computer science and programming but also in various other domains. Computer science (CS) activities have been recognized as effective methods for fostering computational thinking from an early age. Based on Seymour Papert’s experiments with the turtle robot, we designed CS unplugged activities to introduce kindergarten children to the sequencing and loop algorithms. A qualitative study was conducted in a kindergarten setting, among 15 kindergarten children, aged from 3 to 6 years old. The children were exposed to CS unplugged activities in two phases. In the first phase, unstructured observation was used to collect data, and the results were analyzed to inform the design of activities for the second phase. Structured observation methods were employed in the second phase to collect data.

Keywords:

CS Unplugged, programming, kindergarten children, algorithm, computational thinking.