Abstract
Educational robotics is an emerging field with school aged children; however, it is relatively new to the field of early childhood education and care. This means that the use of educational robotics to help support and develop learning with young children has not been researched extensively. As such, teachers may push back on the use of educational robotics in the classroom or may not have the skills to support the learning of young children. There is a growing need to understand current research around educational robotics and early childhood education, especially in prior to school settings (children aged birth to five years). Across the literature however, little attention has been given to acknowledging the use of educational robotics in early childhood education, especially given the difference of the early childhood education context compared to formal schooling. This article draws together the brief research literature that is available to provide an international snapshot of current trends for educational robotics in early childhood education and care settings by answering the question—what are the current trends in research for educational robotics and early childhood education and care. The findings from the review have the potential to provide a reflection of educational robotics while also prompting ways forward for the development of computational thinking with young children. Key messages are given for working with the very youngest of children to ensure that they are also supported when we talk about educational robotics.
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Appendix
Appendix
Year | Authors | Title | Journal |
|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Neumann, Michelle M | Social Robots and Young Children’s Early Language and Literacy Learning | Early Childhood Education Journal |
2021 | Fridberg, Marie; Redfors, Andreas | Teachers’ and children's use of words during early childhood STEM teaching supported by robotics | International Journal of Early Years Education |
2020 | Turan, Sedat; Aydoğdu, Fatih | Effect of coding and robotic education on pre-school children’s skills of scientific process | Education and Information Technologies |
2020 | Weng, Jiayi; Li, Hui | Early technology education in China: A case study of Shanghai | Early Child Development and Care |
2019 | Bers, Marina Umaschi | Coding as another language: a pedagogical approach for teaching computer science in early childhood | Journals of Computers in Education |
2020 | Çiftci, Serdar; Bildiren, Ahmet | The effect of coding courses on the cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills of preschool children | Computer Science Education |
2020 | Hunsaker, Enoch; West, Richard E | Designing Computational Thinking and Coding Badges for Early Childhood Educators | TechTrends |
2020 | Otterborn, Anna; Schönborn, Konrad J; Hultén, Magnus | Investigating Preschool Educators’ Implementation of Computer Programming in Their Teaching Practice | Early Childhood Education Journal |
2021 | Wang, X. Christine; Choi, Youngae; Benson, Keely; Eggleston, Corinne; Weber, Deborah | Teacher's Role in Fostering Preschoolers’ Computational Thinking: An Exploratory Case Study | Early Education and Development |
2021 | Brainin, Einat; Shamir, Adina; Eden, Sigal | Robot programming intervention for promoting spatial relations, mental rotation and visual memory of kindergarten children | Journal of Research on Technology in Education |
2021 | Wang, Xin; Yin, Nian; Zhang, Zhinan | Smart design of intelligent companion toys for preschool children | Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing |
2019 | Clarke-Midura, Jody; Lee, Victor R; Shumway, Jessica F; Hamilton, Megan M | The building blocks of coding: a comparison of early childhood coding toys | Information and Learning Science |
2019 | Nam, Ki Won; Kim, Hye Jeong; Lee, Suyoun | Connecting Plans to Action: The Effects of a Card-Coded Robotics Curriculum and Activities on Korean Kindergartners | Asia Pacific Educational Researcher |
2021 | Clarke-Midura, Jody; Silvis, Deborah; Shumway, Jessica F; Lee, Victor R; Kozlowski, Joseph S | Developing a kindergarten computational thinking assessment using evidence-centered design: the case of algorithmic thinking | Computer Science Education |
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Garvis, S., Keane, T. (2023). A Literature Review of Educational Robotics and Early Childhood Education. In: Garvis, S., Keane, T. (eds) Technological Innovations in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2785-2_6
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