Zeng Yue, Yang Weipeng, Bautista Alfredo
Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
School of Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Oct 2;14:1252718. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1252718. eCollection 2023.
Programming and computational thinking (CT) have been progressively incorporated into early childhood education to prepare children for the digital age. However, little is known about the content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) possessed by early childhood teachers in this domain. To address this gap, we conducted a case study of an early childhood teacher in China who had experience developing and implementing an unplugged programming and CT curriculum. The triangulation of data sources was established to collect evidence from videotaped observations, interviews, and lesson plans. For the CK, analysis of these findings revealed that the teacher had a more robust understanding of CT concepts (e.g., sequences, conditionals, and loops) compared to CT practices (e.g., decomposition, debugging) and CT perspectives (e.g., perseverance, choices of conduct). In terms of PK, the teacher could apply the general pedagogical knowledge but was relatively weak in using content-specific pedagogical knowledge. As the first endeavor to investigate an early childhood teacher's CK and PK in teaching programming and CT, this study provides significant implications for improving teachers' professional knowledge and teaching effectiveness in this burgeoning area.
编程与计算思维（CT）已逐渐融入幼儿教育，为儿童迎接数字时代做好准备。然而，对于幼儿教师在该领域所具备的学科知识（CK）和教学知识（PK）却知之甚少。为填补这一空白，我们对中国一位有开发和实施无计算机编程及计算思维课程经验的幼儿教师进行了一项案例研究。我们建立了多数据源三角互证法，从录像观察、访谈和教案中收集证据。对于学科知识，对这些研究结果的分析表明，与计算思维实践（如分解、调试）和计算思维视角（如毅力、行为选择）相比，该教师对计算思维概念（如顺序、条件和循环）有更深入的理解。在教学知识方面，该教师能够应用一般教学知识，但在运用特定学科教学知识方面相对薄弱。作为调查幼儿教师在编程与计算思维教学中的学科知识和教学知识的首次尝试，本研究为提高该新兴领域教师的专业知识和教学效果提供了重要启示。
