Short-term effects of a classroom-based STEAM program using robotic kits on children in South Korea

International Journal of STEM Education - Tập 10 - Trang 1-18 - 2023
Jihyun Sung1, Ji Young Lee2, Hui Young Chun3
1Department of Child Psychology and Education/Convergence Program for Social Innovation, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
2Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
3Department of Child Welfare, Kosin University, Busan, South Korea

Tóm tắt

Despite the recent emphasis on technology and engineering in early childhood education, the importance of teaching relevant concepts in early education has been underappreciated in South Korea. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) program integrated into the national curriculum in a Korean early childhood education setting. Children aged 5–6 years (231 girls and 219 boys; treatment group: 334 children; control group: 116 children) were tested on computational thinking, vocabulary, numeracy, self-regulation, and social behavior before and after receiving STEAM curriculum that included robotics activities or an equivalent curriculum. Findings revealed that among the outcome measures, young children in the treatment group exhibited significant increases in computational thinking and expressive vocabulary. Moreover, gender demonstrated a significant interaction effect with the increase in computational thinking as measured by an assessment developed for a specific robotic material as well as in self-regulation and social behavior. This study provides empirical and comprehensive evidence regarding the effectiveness of an integrated STEAM program with developmentally appropriate robotic kits for young children.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget’s constructivism, Papert’s constructionism: What’s the difference. Future of Learning Group Publication, 5(3), 438. Angeli, C., & Valanides, N. (2020). Developing young children’s computational thinking with educational robotics: An interaction effect between gender and scaffolding strategy. Computers in Human Behavior, 105, 105954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.018 Bagiati, A., Yoon, S. Y., Evangelou, D. and Ngambeki, I. (2010). Engineering curricula in early education: Describing the landscape of open resources. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 12(2). 1–15. http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v12n2/bagiati.html Bell, T., & Vahrenhold, J. (2018). CS unplugged—how is it used, and does it work? In Adventures between lower bounds and higher altitudes (pp. 497–521). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98355-4_29 Beran, T. N., Ramirez-Serrano, A., Kuzyk, R., Fior, M., & Nugent, S. (2011). Understanding how children understand robots: Perceived animism in child–robot interaction. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69, 539–550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2011.04.003 Bers, M. U. (2012). Designing digital experiences for positive youth development: From playpen to playground. Oxford University Press. Bers, M. U. (2018). Coding as a playground: Programming and computational thinking in the early childhood classroom. Routledge. Bers, M. U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E. R., & Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum. Computers & Education, 72, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.020 Bers, M. U., González-González, C., & Armas-Torres, M. B. (2019). Coding as a playground: Promoting positive learning experiences in childhood classrooms. Computers & Education, 138, 130–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.04.013 Bers, M. U., & Horn, M. S. (2010). Tangible programming in early childhood. In I. R. Berson & M. J. Berson (Eds.), High-tech tots: Childhood in a digital world (pp. 49–70). Information Age Publishing. Bers, M. U., Strawhacker, A., & Sullivan, A. (2022). The state of the field of computational thinking in early childhood education. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 274, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3354387a-en. Bers, M. U., Strawhacker, A., & Vizner, M. (2018). The design of early childhood makerspaces to support positive technological development: Two case studies. Library Hi Tech. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-06-2017-0112 Bian, L., Leslie, S. J., & Cimpian, A. (2017). Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests. Science, 355(6323), 389–391. Blanca, M. J., Alarcón, R., Arnau, J., Bono, R., & Bendayan, R. (2018). Effect of variance ratio on ANOVA robustness: Might 1.5 be the limit? Behavior Research Methods, 50, 937–962. Caeli, E. N., & Bundsgaard, J. (2020). Computational thinking in compulsory education: A survey study on initiatives and conceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(1), 551–573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09694-z Cameron, D., Fernando, S., Millings, A., Szollosy, M., Collins, E., Moore, R., & Prescott, T. (2016). Congratulations, it’s a boy! Bench-marking children’s perceptions of the robokind Zeno-R25. In Poster Presented at the Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40379-3_4 Cameron, L. (2020). A robot took my job! How STEM education might prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Curriculum Perspectives, 40(2), 233–239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-020-00109-1 Choi, J., & Lee, Y. S. (2017). Development and application of an early childhood STEAM program using an educational robot. Korean Journal of Early Childhood Education, 37(5), 153–178. https://doi.org/10.18023/kjece.2017.37.5.002 Chung, S., Kim, I., Kim, H., Ma, Y., & Park, B. (2018). Validation study of the Korean version of early years toolbox (EYT). Korean Journal of Child Studies, 39(6), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.5723/kjcs.2018.39.6.131 Clements, D. H., Battista, M. T., & Sarama, J. (2001). Logo and geometry. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph, 10, i–177. Clements, D. H., & Nastasi, B. K. (1993). Electronic media and early childhood education. In B. Spodek (Ed.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 251–275). Macmillan. Cvencek, D., Kapur, M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2015). Math achievement, stereotypes, and math self-concepts among elementary-school students in Singapore. Learning and Instruction, 39, 1–10. Dagiene, V., Futschek, G., Koivisto, J., & Stupurienė, G. (2017). The card game of Bebras-like tasks for introducing informatics concepts. In: ISSEP 2017 Online Proceedings. Helsinki, 13–15 November 2017 (2017). Dejarnette, N. K. (2016). America’s children: Providing early exposure to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) initiatives. Reading Improvement, 53(4), 181–187. Dejarnette, N. K. (2018). Implementing STEAM in the Early Childhood Classroom. European Journal of STEM Education, 3(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/3878 Early Childhood STEM Working Group (2017). Early STEM matters: providing high-quality stem experiences for all young learners. A Policy Report by the Early Childhood STEM Working Group. https://ecstem.uchicago.edu Eisner, E. (2001). What justifies arts education: What research does not say. Enlightened advocacy: Implications of research for arts education policy practice, 19–29. Elkin, M., Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2016). Programming with the KIBO robotics kit in preschool classrooms. Computers in the Schools, 33(3), 169–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2016.1216251 Elvstrand, H., Hellberg, K., & Hallström, J. (2012). Technology and gender in early childhood education: How girls and boys explore and learn technology in free play in Swedish preschools. In PATT 26 Conference, Technology Education in the 21st Century, Stockholm, Sweden, 26–30 June, 2012 (pp. 163–171). Linköping University Electronic Press. Field, A. P. (2004). Discovering statistics using SPSS for Windows: Advanced techniques for the beginner (2nd ed.). Sage. Flannery, L. P., & Bers, M. U. (2013). Let’s dance the “robot hokey-pokey!” children’s programming approaches and achievement throughout early cognitive development. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(1), 81–101. https://doi.org/10.1145/2485760.2485785 Georgiou, K., & Angeli, C. (2019, Nov 7–9). Developing preschool children’s computational thinking with educational robotics: The role of cognitive differences and scaffolding [Paper presentation]. 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age: Cagliari, Italy. Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). The role of parents and teachers in the development of gender related math attitudes. Sex Roles, 66, 153–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9996-2 Hetland, L., & Winner, E. (2004). Cognitive transfer from arts education to nonarts outcomes: Research evidence and policy implications. In Handbook of research and policy in art education (pp. 143–170). Routledge. Horn, M. S., Crouser, R. J., & Bers, M. U. (2012). Tangible interaction and learning: The case for a hybrid approach. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16(4), 379–389. Howard, S. J., & Melhuish, E. (2015). An Early Years Toolbox (EYT) for assessing early executive function, language, self-regulation, and social development: Validity, reliability, and preliminary norms. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 35(3), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282916633009 Jordan, N. C., Kaplan, D., Ramineni, C., & Locuniak, M. N. (2009). Early math matters: Kindergarten number competence and later mathematics outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 850–867. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014939 Jung, S. E., & Won, E. S. (2018). Systematic review of research trends in robotics education for young children. Sustainability, 10(4), 905. Jurado, E., Fonseca, D., Coderch, J., & Canaleta, X. (2020). Social STEAM learning at an early age with robotic platforms: A case study in four schools in Spain. Sensors, 20(13), 3698. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20133698 Keeley, B., & Little, C. (2017). The State of the Worlds Children 2017: Children in a Digital World. (Report No. ED590013). UNICEF. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590013.pdf Kermani, H., & Aldemir, J. (2015). Preparing children for success: Integrating science, math, and technology in early childhood classroom. Early Child Development and Care, 185(9), 1504–1527. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1007371 Khoo, K. Y. (2020). A case study on how children develop computational thinking collaboratively with robotics toys. International Journal of Educational Technology and Learning, 9(1), 39–51. Korea Ministry of Education. (2015). 2015 개정 과학과 교육과정 [The 2015 Revised Science Curriculum]. Report no. 2015–74. Sejong: Author. Korea Foundation for the Advancement and Creativity. (2019). About STEAM. Retrieved from https://steam.kofac.re.kr/?page_id=11269 Korea Ministry of Education & Ministry of Health and Welfare. (2019). 2019 개정 누리과정 [The 2019 Revised Nuri Curriculum for 3 to 5-year-olds by Age]. Sejong: Author. Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology & Ministry of Health and Welfare. (2013). 3–5세 연령별 누리과정 [The Nuri Curriculum for 3 to 5-year-olds by Age]. Sejong: Author. Lavigne, H. J., Lewis-Presser, A., & Rosenfeld, D. (2020). An exploratory approach for investigating the integration of computational thinking and mathematics for preschool children. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 36(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2019.1693940 Lee, J.,Choi, H., Jung, J., Oh, Y. J., & Lee, J. (2014). 3–5세 누리과정 유아관찰척도’를 활용한 누리과정 효과 분석 연구 [An Analysis on the Effect of Nuri Curriculum for Age 3–5 using the Development of the Child Assessment Scale]. Seoul: Korea Institute of Child Care and Education. https://repo.kicce.re.kr/handle/2019.oak/883 Lee, K. T., Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2013). Collaboration by design: Using robotics to foster social interaction in kindergarten. Computers in the Schools, 30(3), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2013.805676 Lee, Y. S. (2014). The direction of STEAM Education in Nuri-Curriculum. Korean Journal of Early Childhood Education, 34(1), 327–341. https://doi.org/10.18023/kjece.2014.34.1.014 Makarova, E., Aeschlimann, B., & Herzog, W. (2019). The gender gap in STEM fields: The impact of the gender stereotype of math and science on secondary students’ career aspirations. Frontiers in Education, 60(5), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00060 Manches, A., & Plowman, L. (2017). Computing education in children’s early years: A call for debate. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(1), 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12355 Mawson, B. (2010). Children’s developing understanding of technology. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 20(1), 1–13. McClure, E. R., Guernsey, L., Clements, D. H., Bales, S. N., Nichols, J., Kendall-Taylor, N., & Levine, M. H. (2017). STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in Early Childhood. In Joan Ganz Cooney center at sesame workshop. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. 1900 Broadway, New York, NY 10023. Metz, S. S. (2007). Attracting the engineering of 2020 today. In R. J. Burke, M. C. Mattis, & E. Elgar (Eds.), Women and minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics: Upping the numbers (pp. 184–209). Edward Elgar Publishing. Milto, E., Rogers, C., & Portsmore, M. (2002). Gender differences in confidence levels, group interactions, and feelings about competition in an introductory robotics course. 32nd Annual Frontiers in Education, Boston, MA, United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2002.1158224 Nam, K. W., Kim, H. J., & Lee, S. (2019). Connecting plans to action: The effects of a card-coded robotics curriculum and activities on Korean kindergartners. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 28(5), 387–397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00438-4 National Research Council. (2015). Guide to implementing the next generation science standards. Washington, DC: The National Academic Press. Available at: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18802/guide-to-implementing-the-next-generation-science-standards Next Generation Science Standard Lead States. (2013). Next generation science standards: For States, by States. Washington: The National Academies Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17226/18290 Nguyen, T., Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., Clements, D. H., Sarama, J. S., Wolfe, C., & Spitler, M. E. (2016). Which preschool mathematics competencies are most predictive of fifth grade achievement? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 550–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.02.003 Nourbakhsh, I., Hammer, E., Crowley, K., & Wilkinson, K. (2004). Formal measures of learning in a secondary school mobile robotics contest. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. New Orleans, LA, United States. Oh, J., & Park, Y. W. (2019). A study on pre-schoolers’ smart media use and parents’ perception. Korean Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 13(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.5718/kcep.2019.13.3.3 Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books. Retrieved from https://dl.acm.org/ citation.cfm?id=1095592. Perignat, E., & Katz-Buonincontro, J. (2019). STEAM in practice and research: An integrative literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 31, 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.10.002 Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. (M. Cook, Trans.). Basic Books. https://doi.org/10.1037/11168-000 Rabiner, D. L., Godwin, J., & Dodge, K. A. (2016). Predicting academic achievement and attainment: The contribution of early academic skills, attention difficulties, and social competence. School Psychology Review, 45(2), 250–267. https://doi.org/10.17105/SPR45-2.250-267 Razza, R. A., Martin, A., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2015). Are approaches to learning in Kindergarten associated with academic and social competence similarly? Child & Youth Care Forum, 44, 757–776. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-015-9307-0 Relkin, E. (2018). Assessing young children’s computational thinking abilities (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 10813994). Relkin, E., de Ruiter, L., & Bers, M. U. (2020). TechCheck: Development and validation of an unplugged assessment of computational thinking in early childhood education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 29, 482–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09831-x Roussou, E., & Rangoussi, M. (2020). On the use of robotics for the development of computational thinking in kindergarten: Educational intervention and evaluation. In International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE) (pp. 31–44). Springer. Sandygulova, A., & O’Hare, G. M. (2018). Age-and gender-based differences in children’s interactions with a gender-matching robot. International Journal of Social Robotics, 10(5), 687–700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-018-0472-9 Sarama, J., Clements, D., Nielsen, N., Blanton, M., Romance, N., Hoover, M., Staudt, C., Baroody, A., McWayne, C., & McCulloch, C. (2018). Considerations for STEM Education from PreK through Grade 3. Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE). Sarama, J., Lange, A. A., Clements, D. H., & Wolfe, C. B. (2012). The impacts of an early mathematics curriculum on oral language and literacy. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(3), 489–502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.12.002 Saxena, A., Lo, C. K., Hew, K. F., & Wong, G. K. W. (2020). Designing unplugged and plugged activities to cultivate computational thinking: An exploratory study in early childhood education. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 29(1), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00478-w Selby, C. C., & Wollard, J. (2013). Computational thinking: The developing definitions. Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on computer science education. Canterbury: ACM. Sentence, S. (2018). Bebras cards project: Report on distribution and evaluation of Bebras Cards. King’s College London. STEM Learning. (2018). About us. https://www.stem.org.uk/. Accessed 29 Sep 2018 Strawhacker, A., & Bers, M. U. (2018). Promoting positive technological development in a kindergarten makerspace: A qualitative case study. European Journal of STEM Education, 3(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/3869 Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2013). Gender differences in kindergarteners’ robotics and programming achievement. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 23(3), 691–702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-012-9210-z Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2016a). Robotics in the early childhood classroom: Learning outcomes from an 8-week robotics curriculum in pre-kindergarten through second grade. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 26(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9304-5 Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2016b). Girls, boys, and bots: Gender differences in young children’s performance on robotics and programming tasks. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 15(1), 145–165. Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2018). Dancing robots: Integrating art, music, and robotics in Singapore’s early childhood centers. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 28(2), 325–346. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-017-9397-0 Sullivan, A., Bers, M., & Pugnali, A. (2017). The impact of user interface on young children’s computational thinking. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 16(1), 171–193. Sung, J. (2022). Assessing young Korean children’s computational thinking: A validation study of two measurements. Education and Information Technologies, 27, 12969–12997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11137-x Sung, J., & Wickrama, K. A. (2018). Longitudinal relationship between early academic achievement and executive function: Mediating role of approaches to learning. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54, 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.06.010 Sung, J., Lee, J. Y., & Park, J. (2019). Exploring the direction of developmentally appropriate computing education in early childhood. Korean Journal of Early Childhood Education, 39(5), 107–132. https://doi.org/10.18023/kjece.2019.39.5.005 Sung, J., Lee, J. Y., & Park, J. (2020). A study on the development of the STEAM program using unplugged robots for 5-year-old children. Korean Journal of Early Childhood Education, 40(2), 97–128. https://doi.org/10.18023/kjece.2020.40.2.004 Tenenbaum, H. R., & Leaper, C. (2003). Parent-child conversations about science: The socialization of gender inequities? Developmental Psychology, 39(1), 34–47. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2016). Framework for Twenty-First Century Learning. Retrieved April, 30, 2019 from http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21/frameworks-resources Thomson, M. M., DiFrancesca, D., Carrier, S., & Lee, C. (2017). Teaching efficacy: Exploring relationships between mathematics and science self-efficacy beliefs, PCK and domain knowledge among preservice teachers from the United States. Teacher Development, 21(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2016.1204355 Turan, S., & Aydoğdu, F. (2020). Effect of coding and robotic education on pre-school children’s skills of scientific process. Education and Information Technologies, 25(5), 4353–4363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10178-4 U.K. Department for Education (2013). Statutory guidance National curriculum in England: Primary curriculum. www.gov.uk/dfe/nationalcurriculum. U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering (2016). The UK STEM Education Landscape. www.raeng.org.uk/stemlandscap Vukovic, R. K., & Lesaux, N. K. (2013). The language of mathematics: Investigating the ways language counts for children’s mathematical development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115(2), 227–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.02.002 Walters, M. L., Syrdal, D. S., Koay, K. L., Dautenhahn, K., & Boekhorst, R.T. (2008). Human approach distances to a mechanical-looking robot with different robot voice styles. In Poster Presented at the RO-MAN 2008—The 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication. https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2008.4600750 Watson, E. (2020). STEM or STEAM?: The Critical Role of Arts in Technology Education (and the Critical Role of Art in Technology). Irish Journal of Academic Practice, 8(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.21427/eqzb-vb42 Wing, J. M. (2011). Computational thinking: what and why?. The Link Magazine, 20–23. Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35.