Although digital technology is an important part of young people's lives, previous research implies that they have a limited understanding of what programming is and its connection to the digital devices they encounter every day. In order to create conditions for meaningful teaching in and about programming in technology education, more knowledge…

Primary school children frequently use digital devices, which can be infected by computer viruses. In this mixed methods paper with two studies (N = 278 + 114), we examined 8-year-olds' preconceptions about computer viruses and protection against them; how to teach these children about said topics using three different, 30-min-long,…

Pair learning (PL) in robotics education is derived from pair programming, and impacted by many factors. Two important factors were identified including roles assignment and learning styles in this study. The roles assignment involved Driver-Navigator Pair and Software-Hardware Pair. For the learning style, the dimension of active/reflective was…

There is a recognized need for research on how to teach computer programming in primary schools in Sweden grades 4-6 (10-12-year-old pupils). Studies of teaching show the importance of teachers' knowledge of content and pedagogy and how these two parts affect each other (i.e. pedagogical content knowledge [PCK]). Most teachers in Sweden have…

This paper explores how primary teachers might be prepared through their pre-service training to feel more confident to include engineering in their teaching. Prompted by concerns about young people's lack of interest in STEM subjects and careers, engineering is gradually gaining visibility in the primary curriculum in several forms, particularly…

This research focuses on student-robot interaction in the learning environment of robotics education (RE) and attempts to explore how it cultivates students' computational thinking (CT). Different from child-robot interactions as investigated in the social robot field, student-robot (S-R) interactions focus mainly on the process of interaction…

The inclusion of Computational Thinking (CT) in the classroom along with the promotion of positive attitudes in early ages towards technology have great relevance in the current educational paradigm. This study analyses whether CT instruction may improve pupils' attitudes towards technology, and also considers whether instructional approaches and…

This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on children and computer programming by focusing on a programming language for children in Kindergarten through second grade. Sixty-two students were exposed to a 6-week curriculum using ScartchJr. They learned foundational programming concepts and applied those concepts to create personally…