In recent years, the development of computational thinking (CT) has become integral to many school curricula worldwide. This has been associated with calls for computational thinking to be considered a ‘21 Century’ competency, valuable to students as a transferable process for solving problems and building understanding of human behaviour and systems. However, while computational thinking is a focus of most secondary school computer science curricula, proponents such as Jeanette Wing argue its relevance for younger students, indicating more work must be done investigating its development in early years' education. This study used a structured, problem-based curriculum supported by guided inquiry pedagogy, to explore 6 year old students' learning of basic computational thinking concepts and practices while coding programmable floor robots (Blue-bots and an iPad app). Results indicated improvement across the seven lessons in students' sequencing/algorithm authoring, error correction, and pattern recognition. Furthermore, they revealed evidence of higher order thinking such as identifying patterns in code, and how these can be transferred to help solve problems of different designs. While currently play-based approaches are used to introduce computational thinking concepts and practices in early years' education, results from this study suggest that more structured, problem-based methods should be seriously considered. Results challenge commonly understood developmental theories about what young children can and can't do, contextualised within the field of computer science, and hold implications for early years' teachers' professional knowledge and pedagogy if they are to promote their students' learning in this increasingly important area. Given rapid technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly earlier exposure of young children to digitally-mediated information, this study provides support for the earlier and more systematic introduction of basic digital literacy knowledge and skills in early years' education.

中文翻译：

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促进年轻学生的计算思维：小学早期结构化课程的调查

近年来，计算思维（CT）的发展已成为全球许多学校课程的一部分。这与将计算思维视为“21世纪”能力的呼吁有关，它作为解决问题和建立对人类行为和系统的理解的可转移过程对学生很有价值。然而，虽然计算思维是大多数中学计算机科学课程的重点，但 Jeanette Wing 等支持者认为它与年轻学生相关，表明必须做更多的工作来调查其在早期教育中的发展。本研究采用结构化、以问题为基础的课程，由引导式探究教学法支持，探索 6 岁学生在编写可编程地面机器人（Blue-bots 和 iPad 应用程序）时学习基本计算思维概念和实践的情况。结果表明，七节课学生在测序/算法编写、纠错和模式识别方面都有所提高。此外，他们还揭示了高阶思维的证据，例如识别代码中的模式，以及如何转移这些模式以帮助解决不同设计的问题。虽然目前在早期教育中使用基于游戏的方法来引入计算思维概念和实践，但这项研究的结果表明，应该认真考虑更结构化、基于问题的方法。研究结果挑战了关于幼儿能做什么和不能做什么的普遍理解的发展理论，这些理论结合了计算机科学领域的背景，并且对幼儿教师的专业知识和教学法具有影响，如果他们要在这个日益增长的环境中促进学生的学习的话。重要领域。鉴于人工智能（AI）等技术的快速进步以及幼儿越来越早地接触数字媒介信息，本研究为早期教育中更早、更系统地引入基本数字素养知识和技能提供了支持。