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Unravelling the Cognition of Coding in 3-to-6-year Olds: The development of an assessment tool and the relation between coding ability and cognitive compiling of syntax in natural language

Authors:

Rosalind Thornton,

Genevieve McArthur,

Stephen CrainAuthors Info & Claims

ICER '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

Pages 133 - 141

https://doi.org/10.1145/3230977.3230984

Published: 08 August 2018 Publication History

Abstract

There is growing interest in teaching children computer programming ("coding") to prepare them for the demands of our increasingly digital society. However, we do not yet understand what cognitive skills children need in order to learn to code. The aim of our research program is to identify the requisite skills, with the goal of building a cognitive model of coding. The present research used a wooden robot ("Cubetto", www.primotoys.com) to investigate coding ability in young children. Exp. 1 describes the development and evaluation of the assessment instrument, which was tested with 18 3-to-5-year-old children. The instrument ("Coding Development (CODE) Test 3-6") was used in Exp. 2 to investigate the relationship between coding skill and "cognitive compiling" - the ability to formulate mental action plans in natural language. Thirty 5-to-6-year-olds participated in Exp. 2. Using Bayesian statistics, we found evidence that cognitive compiling predicts coding performance above and beyond age and nonverbal intelligence. We evaluate the outcomes and reflect on whether cognitive compiling depends solely on maturation or might be a skill that can be trained, and if so, how this could be done.

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Digital Library

Cited By

Shen LMirakhur ZLaCour S(2024)Investigating the psychometric features of a locally designed computational thinking assessment for elementary studentsComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2344400(1-20)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2024.2344400
Montuori CGambarota FAltoé GArfé B(2024)The cognitive effects of computational thinkingComputers & Education10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104961210:COnline publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104961
Geng ZZeng BIslam AZhang XHuang J(2024)Validating a measure of computational thinking skills in Chinese kindergartnersEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-13100-430:1(881-916)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13100-4
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Unravelling the Cognition of Coding in 3-to-6-year Olds: The development of an assessment tool and the relation between coding ability and cognitive compiling of syntax in natural language
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICER '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

August 2018

307 pages

ISBN:9781450356282

DOI:10.1145/3230977

General Chairs:
Lauri Malmi
Aalto University, Finland
,
Ari Korhonen
Aalto University, Finland
,
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA
,
Andrew Petersen
University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Lauri Malmi
Aalto University, Finland
,
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA

Copyright © 2018 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 August 2018

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ARC Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders

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ICER '18

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SIGCSE

ICER '18: International Computing Education Research Conference

August 13 - 15, 2018

Espoo, Finland

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ICER '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 28 of 125 submissions, 22%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

ICER 2025

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sigcse

ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

August 3 - 6, 2025

Charlottesville , VA , USA

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Cited By

Shen LMirakhur ZLaCour S(2024)Investigating the psychometric features of a locally designed computational thinking assessment for elementary studentsComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2344400(1-20)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2024.2344400
Montuori CGambarota FAltoé GArfé B(2024)The cognitive effects of computational thinkingComputers & Education10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104961210:COnline publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104961
Geng ZZeng BIslam AZhang XHuang J(2024)Validating a measure of computational thinking skills in Chinese kindergartnersEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-13100-430:1(881-916)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13100-4
Berciano ACuida ANovo M(2024)The importance of coding and translation between programming languages in sequential activities of pre-service teachers: an approachEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-13092-1Online publication date: 18-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13092-1
Montuori CPozzan GPadova CRonconi LVardanega TArfé B(2023)Combined Unplugged and Educational Robotics Training to Promote Computational Thinking and Cognitive Abilities in PreschoolersEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1309085813:9(858)Online publication date: 23-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090858
ZSOLDOS-MARCHIȘ IBÁLINT-SVELLA É(2023)Development and preliminary testing of the AlgoPaint Unplugged Computational Thinking Assessment for Preschool EducationActa Didactica Napocensia10.24193/adn.16.1.316:1(32-50)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.24193/adn.16.1.3
SAYGINER ŞTÜZÜN H(2023)Elektronik Materyal Tabanlı Bilgisayarsız Kodlama Etkinliklerinin Okul Öncesi Dönemde Kullanımı: Güçlendirilmiş Tasarım ve Uygulama İlkeleriThe Use of Electronic Material-Based Unplugged Coding Activities at Preschool Period: The Reinforced Design and Implementation PrinciplesJournal of Computer and Education Research10.18009/jcer.131694011:22(596-619)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.18009/jcer.1316940
Zviel Girshin RRosenberg NKukliansky I(2023)Early Childhood Robotics: Children’s Beliefs and Objective Capabilities to Read and Write ProgramsJournal of Research in Childhood Education10.1080/02568543.2023.225994638:2(317-335)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2023.2259946
van der Meulen AHartendorp MVoorn WHermans F(2022)The Perception of Teachers on Usability and Accessibility of Programming Materials for Children with Visual ImpairmentsACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/356139123:1(1-21)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3561391
Brown NMarinus EHubbard Cheuoua A(2022)Launching Registered Report Replications in Computer Science Education ResearchProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3501385.3543971(309-322)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501385.3543971
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