Advancing young students’ computational thinking: An investigation of structured curriculum in early years primary schooling

In recent years, the development of computational thinking (CT) has become integral to many school curricula worldwide. This has been associated with calls for computational thinking to be considered a ‘21St Century’ competency, valuable to all students as a transferable process for solving problems and building understanding of human behaviour and systems. However, while computational thinking is a focus of most secondary school computer science curricula, proponents such as Jeanette Wing argue its relevance for younger students, indicating more work must be done investigating its development in early years' education. This study used a structured, problem-based curriculum supported by guided inquiry pedagogy, to explore 6 year old students' learning of basic computational thinking concepts and practices while coding programmable floor robots (Blue-bots and an iPad app). Results indicated improvement across the seven lessons in students' sequencing/algorithm authoring, error correction, and pattern recognition. Furthermore, they revealed evidence of higher order thinking such as identifying patterns in code, and how these can be transferred to help solve problems of different designs. While currently play-based approaches are used to introduce computational thinking concepts and practices in early years' education, results from this study suggest that more structured, problem-based methods should be seriously considered. Results challenge commonly understood developmental theories about what young children can and can't do, contextualised within the field of computer science, and hold implications for early years' teachers' professional knowledge and pedagogy if they are to promote their students' learning in this increasingly important area. Given rapid technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly earlier exposure of young children to digitally-mediated information, this study provides support for the earlier and more systematic introduction of basic digital literacy knowledge and skills in early years' education.