Title: Developing fundamental programming concepts and computational thinking with ScratchJr in preschool education: a case study

Authors: Stamatios Papadakis; Michail Kalogiannakis; Nicholas Zaranis

Addresses: Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Crete, Greece ' Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Crete, Greece ' Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Crete, Greece

Abstract: In recent years, the teaching of programming and development of fundamental programming concepts at the preschool age has attracted the interest of the educational and scientific community. International research has highlighted that teaching programming to young children has a crucial influence on the development of their cognitive functions. There are currently plenty of available programming environments suited for preschoolers. Researchers are adapting their views concerning the age threshold at which young children can effectively get involved with programming. A new programming environment, which was designed to help preschoolers familiarise with basic programming concepts, in a developmentally appropriate manner, is ScratchJr. This study performs a brief introduction to the characteristics of ScratchJr as well as a presentation of the results of a small-scale pilot study for the evaluation of ScratchJr as means of teaching basic programming concepts in the preschool classroom.

Keywords: ScratchJr; preschool education; basic programming concepts; computational thinking; case study; young children.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMLO.2016.077867

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 2016 Vol.10 No.3, pp.187 - 202

Received: 09 Mar 2016
Accepted: 03 May 2016
Published online: 17 Jul 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article