Computing education in children's early years: A call for debate
Open accessAbstract
International changes in policy and curricula (notably recent developments in E ngland) have led to a focus on the role of computing education in the early years. As interest in the potential of computing education has increased, there has been a proliferation of programming tools designed for young children. While these changes are broadly to be welcomed, the pace of change has arguably led to more attention to the tools than to key questions about pedagogy. This paper proposes three areas of research (Logo; computational thinking; and teaching STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics) that may inform computing education for young children and suggests that a greater focus on thinking skills and connections to manifestations of computers in the real world is needed. Above all, the paper calls for an informed debate about the trend towards introducing computing education to children in the early years.
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Educators' expertise in consolidating various educational materials, tools, and practices is pivotal for effectively nurturing CT skills in young children.
“Their expertise in consolidating various educational materials, tools, and practices is pivotal for effectively nurturing CT skills in young children [38].”
From ChatScratch: An AI-Augmented System Toward Autonomous Visual Programming Learning for Children Aged 6-12 (2024) · cites this paper as [38]
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- Authors
- Manches, A., & Plowman, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Manches, Andrew
- Venue
- British Journal of Educational Technology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-11-13
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 191-201
- ISSN
- 0007-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8535
- OpenAlex
- W2100712682
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 11.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- British Journal of Educational Technology (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/K001531/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Technology in Education
- Keywords
- computing education, early childhood education, young children, software development tools, logos, computational thinking, STEM education, pedagogy, curriculum policy, thinking skills
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