SSCI 论文框架示意｜一篇论文从头到尾怎么搭

Computational thinking (CT) is a fundamental skill and a new form of literacy that everyone should develop to participate in civic society. Sequencing and algorithmic thinking are at the core of CT. This study looked into how young children enrolled in a kindergarten in Colombia develop CT skills.

This paper aims to develop a learning progression of sequencing and algorithm design for early childhood. This goal is complemented by identifying the challenges children face to advance into more sophisticated approaches to problem-solving using algorithmic thinking.

Fourteen five- and six-year-old students participated in this study. These children participated in unplugged learning activities, and solved two sets of challenges with the BeeBot. We used a grounded theory approach to analyze how they solved these algorithmic thinking activities and the challenges they faced in this process.

Our results suggest four increasingly sophisticated approaches to solving these activities: step-by-step, simple decomposition, advanced decomposition, and full algorithm design. We also found different challenges students faced when working on these activities. These challenges can relate to critical cognitive skills.

These results will enable educators to support student learning about CT. These results also open new questions about the relationship between cognitive skills and CT activities in early childhood.

在全球范围内，CT 已经被纳入美国、英国、芬兰、中国和其他国家的 K-12 课程。最近的工作已经证实，早期接触 CT 可以预测 STEM 学科学习、执行功能、21 世纪能力，甚至未来的职业道路。由于幼儿期是儿童成长和学习的关键阶段（Piaget），培养幼儿 CT 是必不可少的。

编程已经被认为是促进学习者 CT 学习的首要和最有效的手段。在机器人技术不断进步的今天，教育机器人越来越多地应用于（幼儿教育场景）。

近年来，研究者使用可编程机器人来教儿童编程，并在发展儿童 CT 方面验证了其有效性。

在早期儿童教育中，传统的机器人编程教学通常采用直接介绍（抽象概念）的方式：教师主要集中于介绍抽象的 CT 概念和编程指令，然后鼓励儿童编写自己的程序，而没有提供指导策略来帮助他们将抽象的 CT 概念和已经熟悉的具体概念结合起来。因此，幼儿通常在掌握算法/序列、表示、循环和调试等抽象概念方面存在挑战。按照皮亚杰的理论，2–7 岁幼儿依赖具体经验；建构主义学习迁移也要求将现有经验与目标抽象概念联系起来。上述问题可能源于缺乏适当的、适合年龄的幼儿机器人编程教学方法。

概念隐喻理论（CMT）指出，隐喻允许个体在相对抽象的经验领域与具体经验领域之间建立联系。在教育领域，隐喻可以作为一种有效的工具，让教师用与学习者经验相关的、更加具体的概念来解释抽象概念，帮助他们更直观地理解目标概念。以往研究已证实隐喻在语言、数学和生物等学科（教学）中的作用；（相关尝试）已覆盖大学生、高中生和小学生——隐喻机器人对促进小学四至六年级学生 CT 的（有效性）已被验证，对幼儿 CT 有很大的潜力。

然而，机器人编程学习中的隐喻对幼儿 CT 的影响尚未得到讨论。

考虑到这一局限性，本研究试图将隐喻整合到机器人编程中，提出一种基于隐喻的机器人编程（MRP）方法来开发幼儿 CT。

（Bers 等）强调了（技术增强学习环境中）学习行为的重要性，特别是在机器人编程学习中：在不同教学方法下，儿童往往表现出不同的学习行为；分析和比较儿童的学习行为，不仅可以为评估教学方法的有效性提供定性数据，还可为教育研究者制定更有效的教学策略提供参考。然而，目前关于幼儿在编程学习中的学习行为的研究较少。因此，本研究进一步探讨了 MRP 方法对幼儿行为模式的影响，并假设采用 MRP 的儿童可以更好地提高 CT，并表现出更积极的学习行为。

本研究的主要研究问题如下：(1) MRP 方法是否比传统的机器人编程（CRP）方法更好地促进幼儿 CT？(2) MRP 方法是否比 CRP 方法更能促进幼儿的积极学习行为？

Papert (1980) first introduced CT in his book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. He developed the LOGO programming language and discussed the challenge of incorporating computer science education into a playful setting to improve children's problem-solving skills. Later, Wing (2006) first explicitly defined the term CT and popularized it. She emphasized the significance of CT for children and stated that it is as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Moreover, several attempts have made CT more specific. For example, Brennan and Resnick (2012) divided CT into a three-dimensional framework consisting of CT concepts, CT practices, and CT perspectives. Bers (2018) concentrated on young children's CT and proposed seven powerful ideas: hardware/software, algorithm, representation, debugging, modularity, control structure, and design process. Despite the numerous different definitions of CT, the problem-solving nature of CT in technological and real-world problems has gained widespread recognition.

In recent years, cultivating young children's CT has sparked increasing attention. Recent works have shown that early-year CT education is associated with STEM subject learning, executive functions, 21st-century competencies, and even future career paths. … Early childhood is a critical period for children's development and learning (Piaget, 1971); therefore, cultivating young children's CT should be highly emphasized.

In recent years, several studies have verified that programming is the most effective means to promote learners' CT. … Programmable robotics was designed as a developmental-appropriate tool to teach children programming and develop their CT. … robot programming tends to be designed according to the principle of a low floor (the ability for children to program without professional training). Compared with screen-based programming, robot programming can not only protect children's visual health but also reduce their cognitive load. More importantly, robot programming provides young children with great opportunities to interact with tangible objects in a playful learning context to foster their CT.

Research has identified the applicability and positive benefits of robot programming in developing CT for young children. For example, Bers et al. (2019) confirmed that children could achieve high-level CT through the KIBO robotic kit. Fu et al. (2023) and Yang et al. (2022) revealed the positive benefits of Matatalab robot programming to early-year children's CT. … As such, robot programming can be an age-appropriate and effective means to promote young children's CT and positive learning behaviors.

Bers (2019) proposed a "Coding as Another Language" approach for early childhood computer science … In addition, Bers et al. (2019) proposed a "Coding as a playground" approach for teaching children programming … Moreover, according to the review work of Bakala et al. (2021) and Macrides et al. (2022), most studies used a narrative approach in robot programming education.

However, young children still have challenges in grasping some abstract CT concepts, such as algorithms, loops, and debugging. … This problem has not yet been well addressed in previous research. Relkin et al. (2021) mentioned that the stage of children's development can constrain the acquisition of CT. Piaget's (1971) developmental stages proposed that young children are primarily in the preoperational stage … their conceptual knowledge constructions are dependent on more concrete and familiar experiences. … As such, there is a further need to propose an age-appropriate pedagogical approach to teach young children robot programming and develop their CT.

The conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) indicates that conceptual metaphors are employed in everyday life and play a crucial role in an individual's thinking process. Metaphors allow learners to make connections between relatively abstract areas of experience (target domains) with more concrete experiences we are familiar with (source domains). … For example, in the sayings "life is a journey" and "life is a play," the "journey" and "play" metaphors were used to help learners better understand the different interpretations of abstract "life" concepts.

In educational fields, metaphors can be an effective facilitator to connect abstract concepts into concrete and familiar concepts that are relevant to students' life and learning experiences. … the selection of metaphors should closely link with the learner's daily life contexts or learning knowledge that has already been well understood. Until now, several researchers have used and validated the effectiveness of metaphors in a variety of subject teachings, such as language, mathematics, and chemistry.

In addition, metaphors have been applied to teach programming. Milner (2010) conducted a study using the EventListener metaphor in programming teaching and verified its effectiveness in helping college students understand the mechanism of Java event handling. Pérez-Marín (2018) proposed a methodology proposal based on metaphors to teach children basic CT concepts, such as a recipe as a program and sequence, a pantry as the memory, and boxes as variables. In addition, Pérez-Marin et al. (2020) further validated its effectiveness in developing CT for primary school students from fourth to sixth grades based on the Scratch programming environment. However, this study lacked a control group to make a comparison with the metaphor-based programming teaching.

As we can see, metaphors can be an age-appropriate approach for programming learning, which can connect abstract CT concepts into concrete and familiar concepts that are relevant to children's life and learning experiences. … To date, metaphors have been used in programming teaching to enhance older age groups' CT (e.g., college students and primary school students), while the applicability of metaphors in programming teaching for developing early-year children's CT has not yet been discussed. Therefore, this study integrated metaphors into robot programming learning and proposed a metaphor-based robot programming approach to developing young children's CT.