The significance of teachers' self-efficacy in coding education within K-12 settings has grown substantially. However, the literature lacks subject-specific measurement tools tailored to assess teachers' self-efficacy in coding instruction. This study adopted a mixed methods approach to develop a reliable and valid instrument for measuring…

Developing computational thinking (CT) skills at an early age can help develop literacy, science, and mathematics skills; however, CT instruction in grades K-2 remains limited. This study examined the perceptions of 45 K-2 teachers from 30 school districts before and after a CT professional development (PD) experience. The PD included two online…

Programming has been considered a crucial "object to think with", which can integrate with various disciplines and facilitate learning in other areas. However, existing research primarily focuses on how children learn to code rather than how coding helps them to learn. To address this gap, a quasi-experimental case study was conducted…

Purpose: Much remains unknown about how young children orient to computational objects and how we as learning scientists can orient to young children as computational thinkers. While some research exists on how children learn programming, very little has been written about how they learn the technical skills needed to operate technologies or to…

In the last decade, there has been an increasing shift to begin teaching computer science and computational thinking in kindergarten. Most of these efforts have grown from the demand of a technically sophisticated workforce. This paper presents three contributions. First, a theoretical contribution by proposing the teaching of computer science as…

Coding learning involves cognitive control ability that enables children to coordinate behaviors according to internally maintained goals. However, such ability is still developing during early childhood and cannot reach maturity at least until late adolescence. This study aimed to test whether integrating cognitive control strategies into online…

The aim of this study was to explore how the Coding as Another Language (CAL) curriculum, developed by Boston College's DevTech Research Group and utilizing the ScratchJr app, impacted students' computational thinking, coding skills, and reading comprehension. To accomplish this, the research team randomly assigned thirteen schools in a…

This work explores whether the facilitative effect of causal information on preschoolers' word and descriptive fact learning persists in school-age children. Twenty-three 5-year-olds just beginning school and 23 6- to 7-year-olds who had accumulated over a year of schooling were taught novel words along with descriptions of causally rich,…

Although social difficulties have been identified as sequelae of children's experiences with interparental conflict and insecurity, little is known about the specific mechanisms underlying their vulnerability to social problems. Guided by emotional security theory, this study tested the hypothesis that children's emotional insecurity mediates…

Computer programming for young children has grown in popularity among both educators and product developers, but still relatively little is known about what skills children are developing when they code. This study investigated N = 57 Kindergarten through second grade children's performance on a programming assessment after engaging in a 6-week…

The study seeks to understand the relation between preschool children's mode of participation and negotiation strategies during play and their theory of mind (ToM) development in the Hong Kong context. Forty-two 5-year-old children were recruited. Their emotional and cognitive ToMs were assessed along with expressive language ability. Children's…

The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which the content and recommendations in recently published early language and literacy methods textbooks may support early childhood teachers in learning to provide vocabulary instruction for young children. We completed a content analysis of 9 textbooks with coding at the sentence level.…

To develop and nurture critical thinking, students must have opportunities to observe and practice critical thinking in the classroom. In this parallel mixed method classroom study, we investigate the role of collaborative concept mapping in the development of kindergarten learners' critical thinking skills of analysis and interpretation over a…

The current study aimed to substantiate and extend our understanding regarding the existence and developmental pathways of 3 distinct temperament profiles--exuberant, inhibited, and average approach--in a sample of 3.5-year-old children (n = 121). The interactions between temperamental styles and specific types of effortful control, inhibitory…

Piecewise growth models (PGMs) were used to estimate and model changes in the preliteracy skill development of kindergartners in a moderately sized school district in the Pacific Northwest. PGMs were applied to interrupted time-series (ITS) data that arose within the context of a response-to-intervention (RtI) instructional framework. During the…