Mental Representations About Tangible Programming in Early Childhood Education

Representations of early childhood children and their development of computational thinking skills while tangibly programming a robot are presented in this study. Data was taken from multiple case studies in preschool settings. Research protocols recorded children’s representations in individual basis semi-structured interviews in pre and post-sessions of an almost monthly educational intervention delivered by teachers in their classrooms. Some examples of depictions on children’s drawings will also be presented, showing children’s learning development in their computational thinking skills. The results show that while children attribute an animate identity to a robot, at the same time, they state and depict data for its properties and basic functional features.