More Like this

1. What Do You See in Mathematical Play?

   Gresalfi, M; Parks, A; Wager, A; Bryan, A; Jessup, N; Templeton, T (November 2023, North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Lamberg, T; Moss, D (Ed.)

   As part of a longitudinal study focused on mathematical play, we (Melissa, Amy, and Anita) are often faced with questions about what counts as play and what mathematics (and other learning) we see in play, and whose play is most likely to be seen or dismissed. Rather than discuss our findings from classroom videos of kindergarten children engaged in mathematical play, we asked scholars who bring different lenses to research on play, young children, and teaching and learning mathematics to look at some of our data and provide their perspectives. In this session, we will share video and discuss with our panel (Nathaniel, Naomi, and Tran) various ways to interpret that video. This paper provides background on the potential of mathematical play and the details of the study that generated data for analysis. We conclude with a copy of a transcript that is associated with a video we will watch during the plenary with hopes that participants will watch prior to the session and come with their own questions/perspectives. 

   more » « less
2. Developing habits of mind through family engineering at home.

   Tan, J.; Simpson, A.; Knox, P. N.; Werfelli, S.; Maltese, A. V. (January 2023, American Society for Engineering Education)

   Engineering in early education provides the foundation for the future of innovation. Reinforcing learning and engineering habits of mind (HoM) at an early age is crucial for expanding students’ higher order thinking, potential for lifelong learning, and sense of agency in their learning experiences. HoM is defined as a set of learned or internalized dispositions that inform an individual's behaviors when confronted with challenges. This study addressed two research questions: (1) Which HoM were articulated by children as they reflected upon their participation in a home-based engineering program? (2) What patterns of the children’s vocabulary align with the HoM framework? Observational methods were used to examine young children’s reflections upon the process of completing low-stakes engineering projects in their home. The participants were 23 children ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. After they engaged in the ill-structured engineering tasks with family members at home, children joined an online show-and-tell meeting to show their prototype to others while answering various questions about their processes, frustrations, and successes. Findings revealed “Resourcefulness,” “Adapting/Improving,” and “Systems Thinking” as the most common HoM expressed by children through the show-and-tell meetings. Additional analysis also highlighted how children's articulation of learning and engineering habits of mind were logical (i.e., analytical), confident (i.e., clout), and impersonal. Moreover, children’s words were product oriented, predominantly focusing on the materials and tools utilized to create their prototype. The significance of this study highlights how engaging in hands-on engineering projects in the home has the potential to develop children’s dispositions and ways of thinking common to engineers. 

   more » « less
3. The technical matters: young children debugging (with) tangible coding toys

   https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-12-2021-0109  

   Silvis, Deborah; Lee, Victor R.; Clarke-Midura, Jody; Shumway, Jessica F. (July 2022, Information and Learning Sciences)

   Purpose Much remains unknown about how young children orient to computational objects and how we as learning scientists can orient to young children as computational thinkers. While some research exists on how children learn programming, very little has been written about how they learn the technical skills needed to operate technologies or to fix breakdowns that occur in the code or the machine. The purpose of this study is to explore how children perform technical knowledge in tangible programming environments. Design/methodology/approach The current study examines the organization of young children’s technical knowledge in the context of a design-based study of Kindergarteners learning to code using robot coding toys, where groups of children collaboratively debugged programs. The authors conducted iterative rounds of qualitative coding of video recordings in kindergarten classrooms and interaction analysis of children using coding robots. Findings The authors found that as children repaired bugs at the level of the program and at the level of the physical apparatus, they were performing essential technical knowledge; the authors focus on how demonstrating technical knowledge was organized pedagogically and collectively achieved. Originality/value Drawing broadly from studies of the social organization of technical work in professional settings, we argue that technical knowledge is easy to overlook but essential for learning to repair programs. The authors suggest how tangible programming environments represent pedagogically important contexts for dis-embedding young children’s essential technical knowledge from the more abstract knowledge of programming. 

   more » « less
4. "It's Not a Replacement:" Enabling Parent-Robot Collaboration to Support In-Home Learning Experiences of Young Children

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642806  

   Ho, Hui-Ru; Hubbard, Edward M; Mutlu, Bilge (May 2024, ACM)

   Learning companion robots for young children are increasingly adopted in informal learning environments. Although parents play a pivotal role in their children’s learning, very little is known about how parents prefer to incorporate robots into their children’s learning activities. We developed prototype capabilities for a learning companion robot to deliver educational prompts and responses to parent-child pairs during reading sessions and conducted in-home user studies involving 10 families with children aged 3–5. Our data indicates that parents want to work with robots as collaborators to augment parental activities to foster children’s learning, introducing the notion of parent-robot collaboration. Our findings offer an empirical understanding of the needs and challenges of parent-child interaction in informal learning scenarios and design opportunities for integrating a companion robot into these interactions. We offer insights into how robots might be designed to facilitate parent-robot collaboration, including parenting policies, collaboration patterns, and interaction paradigms. 

   more » « less
5. Exploring Preschool Data Collection and Analysis: A Pilot Study

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12020118  

   Lewis Presser, Ashley E.; Young, Jessica M.; Clements, Lindsay J.; Rosenfeld, Deborah; Cerrone, Michelle; Kook, Janna F.; Sherwood, Heather (February 2022, Education Sciences)

   Data collection and analysis (DCA) skills apply mathematical knowledge, such as counting, sorting, and classifying, to investigations of real-world questions. This pursuit lays the foundation for learners to develop flexible problem-solving skills with data. This pilot study tested a preschool intervention intended to support teachers in promoting young children’s DCA skills using a technology-integrated approach. A key component therein was a teacher-facing digital app that facilitated collaboration between preschool teachers and children to more easily collect data, create simple graphs, and use graphed data to engage in real-world questions and discussions. As part of a design-based research approach, this study tested the intervention’s developmental appropriateness and feasibility in four preschool classrooms (n = 5). Findings suggest that the intervention curriculum (i.e., investigations) and inclusion of the app supported teachers and children to answer data-focused questions by engaging in each step of the DCA process while applying numerous mathematics skills. Teachers reported that the app complemented curricular implementation and children demonstrated readiness to engage with, and benefit from, the investigations. Findings also indicated the developmental appropriateness and feasibility of applying this DCA approach in preschools and suggest further study of the approach. 

   more » « less