In recent years, Singapore has increased its national emphasis on technology and engineering in early childhood education. Their newest initiative, the Playmaker Programme, has focused on teaching robotics and coding in preschool settings. Robotics offers a playful and collaborative way for children to engage with foundational technology and…

Based on an ethnographic study of a pre-engineering freshman course at a large university on the US-Mexico border, I explore how 4 Latinx undergraduate students, 2 of whom crossed the border on a daily basis to pursue higher education (HE), built a Lego robot that they named "La Migra" (a colloquial term for US Border Patrol). In…

Many rural communities are looking for inexpensive and innovative ways to engage youth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). University Extension 4-H programs offer a unique platform to increase rural youth exposure to STEM and build important life skills. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine ways in which…

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief robot-mediated intervention based on Lego® therapy on improving collaborative behaviors (i.e., interaction initiations, responses, and play together) between children with ASD and their siblings during play sessions, in a therapeutic setting. A concurrent multiple baseline design…

This paper presents findings from an on-going international study of Early Childhood (EC) teachers' and children's use of Internet of Toys (IoToys) to understand possibilities for developing children's cognitive capacities (e.g., creativity, inquiry, engineering design thinking). The study employed a Design Based Research (DBR) method, where…

Courses on computer programming are included in the curricula of almost all engineering disciplines. We surveyed the research literature and identified the techniques that are commonly used by instructors for teaching these courses. We observed that visual programming and game-based learning can enhance computational thinking and problem-solving…

Robotics education has gradually been emphasized in contemporary school curricula; however, assessment tools for robotics learning are still limited. Based on Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives, this study aimed to develop the Robotics Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (RLSES) with a two-level construct of five dimensions for assessing…

In the digital world, where robotics implementations are taking a place in educational processes with increasing acceleration, it is important that pre-service teachers gain competences in this field that addresses the needs of the future. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to design an activity process in which pre-service science…

Computer science (CS) education helps students acquire skills such as computational thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. Since these skills take preeminence in the rapidly changing 21st century, CS education promises to significantly enhance student preparedness for the future of work and active citizenship. Based on prior analyses and…

This study aims to explore an educational learning environment that supports students to learn conceptual modelling with the unified modelling language (UML). In this study, we call the describing models "UML programming." In this paper, we show an educational UML programming environment for science, technology, engineering, art, and…

This paper presents findings from an on-going international study (Australia and Finland) of preschool teachers' beliefs and pedagogical practices in the integration of technology to engage young children in learning science. Scarcely used in early childhood education research, this study is framed using Mishra and Koehler's (2006) Technological…

Teachers have the daunting task of preparing students for a future that they cannot predict. In an age of information where students have the world quite literally at their fingertips, and with the ever-growing momentum of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), it is not enough that students experience STEM subjects…

This special double issue of the International Journal of Training Research with the theme 'emerging labor markets of the future--reimagining skills development and training' contains 13 articles that provide a comprehensive overview of global and regional trends that impact on emerging jobs and labor markets of the future. With particular…

Computer programming has been gradually emphasized in recent computer literacy education and regarded as a requirement for all middle school students in some countries. To understand young students' perceptions about their own learning in computer programming, this study aimed to develop an instrument, Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale…

This paper describes the design of an industrial informatics course, following the project-based learning methodology, and reports the experience of four academic years (from 2012-13 to 2015-16). Industrial Informatics is a compulsory course taught in the third year of the B.Sc. degree in industrial electronics and automation engineering at the…