Collaborative Research: The Development of Computational Literacy through the Integration of Computational Thinking and Early Language and Literacy Development in Urban Preschools

Education Development Center, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

Building on the current and growing interest in supporting young children (especially those from underserved backgrounds) to think computationally, this project will integrate storytelling and computational thinking. Computational thinking in this setting includes knowledge such as finding patterns and understanding logical sequencing that are essential for disciplines such as mathematics and engineering. The project will conduct an exploratory research process starting with understanding what computational thinking learning opportunities already exist for children and how they can be integrated into existing storytelling and literacy activities. Then the project will examine how preschool children apply computational thinking while developing their narrative skills (storytelling and understanding the structure of stories). The project will also investigate how preschool children and their teachers make meaning of experiences that are designed to foster computational thinking while composing narratives. The project will design and adapt a new learning resource called The Story Emporium and consisting of a touch-screen digital platform that children can use to program their own stories, along with accompanying hands-on activities and teacher scaffolds. Then, the project will investigate what evidence of promise exists for the Story Emporium as a resource to support children's use of computational thinking to solve their own challenges and to develop their narrative competence in storytelling. The project is funded by the STEM+Computing program, which seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within disciplinary STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12). To conduct the research, a team of education researchers, practitioners, and technology experts will collaborate on a co-design process with preschool teachers, children, and field experts. Experts from the fields of early childhood education, literacy, computational thinking education, and the design of learning environments will collaborate on this project. Modeled on Clements' (2007) Curriculum Research Framework, project activities will begin with developing a model of the project's pedagogical foundation, informed by a forum of experts and a review of literature. Then exploratory research will investigate the opportunities to integrate computational thinking and narrative development by observing educators and preschool children during classroom activities for early literacy instruction. The model of the project's pedagogical foundation will be revised based on findings from the exploratory research. Finally, the project will use multiple design cycles to develop computational literacy learning tasks and conduct formative research on children's computational literacy and teachers' instructional practices while iteratively developing and testing a learning intervention (The Story Emporium). The project will also investigate the promise of the intervention in cultivating preschoolers' computational literacy and narrative competence. The research questions examine what aspects of computational thinking are already present in children's practice with narrative development and language followed by understanding the learning process when children engage with a learning intervention designed to integrate computational thinking and narrative literacy. The learning process will be supported by designing tasks and a digital learning platform. Data to be collected include qualitative data to document student learning, such as video observations, transcript analysis, coding of students' work, and storyboarding tasks for children. Students' knowledge will also be measured using a general literacy measure, computational literacy tasks, a narrative comprehension test, and video observations. Data from teachers will also include classroom observations, interviews, and implementation logs when the educators use the learning intervention. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.