Computer programming and associated Computational Thinking (CT) skills are essential to thriving in today's academic and professional world. There has been a growing focus globally on fostering CT skills as well as on introducing computer programming concepts and languages beginning as early as kindergarten and pre-primary school. Tools,…

Today, schools are introducing STEM education and robotics to children in ever-lower grades. In "Beyond Coding," Marina Umaschi Bers lays out a pedagogical roadmap for teaching code that encompasses the cultivation of character along with technical knowledge and skills. Presenting code as a universal language, she shows how children…

In recent years, there has been an increased effort to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education. In accordance with the international trend, programming has become an increasingly growing focus in European education. With over 9.5 million iPhone Operating System (iOS) downloads, ScratchJr is the most popular freely…

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…

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood technology interventions exist. This pilot study looks at N = 45 children in kindergarten through second…