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Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the effects of gender and scaffolding in developing preschool children’s computational thinking during problem-solving with Bee-Bots

Frontiers in Education

The research community has embraced computational thinking as an essential skill to develop in sc... more The research community has embraced computational thinking as an essential skill to develop in school and academic settings. Many researchers argue that computational thinking should be developed in the context of programming and robotic activities in all educational levels of education, starting from early childhood education. However, the factors related to developing computational thinking in preschool education are still under study. Furthermore, not too many empirical investigations provide evidence about the development of computational thinking in young children. The present study examined the effects of scaffolding and gender in developing young children’s sequencing and decomposition skills - two of the five skills that constitute computational thinking. The results indicated statistically significant effects about the type of scaffolding on children’s computational thinking in favor of the children assigned to the experimental groups. Lastly, boys outperformed girls on all...

Research paper thumbnail of Developing Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Education: A Focus on Algorithmic Thinking and the Role of Cognitive Differences and Scaffolding

Research paper thumbnail of Developing Preschool Children's Computational Thinking with Educational Robotics: The Role of Cognitive Differences and Scaffolding

Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2019)

The development of computational thinking is as important as writing, reading and arithmetic, and... more The development of computational thinking is as important as writing, reading and arithmetic, and, it should start as early as kindergarten (Wing, 2008). However, little has been done in terms of investigating the factors influencing the development of computational thinking in preschool education (

Research paper thumbnail of Educational Robotics: Platforms, Competitions and Expected Learning Outcomes

IEEE Access

Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around Educational Robotics (ER), this paper attemp... more Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around Educational Robotics (ER), this paper attempts to re-approach this area by suggesting new ways of thinking and exploring the related concepts. The contribution of the paper is fourfold. First, future readers can use this paper as a reference point for exploring the expected learning outcomes of educational robotics. From an exhaustive list of potential learning gains, we propose a set of six learning outcomes that can offer a starting point for a viable model for the design of robotic activities. Second, the paper aims to serve as a survey for the most recent ER platforms. Driven by the growing number of available robotics platforms, we have gathered the most recent ER kits. We also propose a new way to categorize the platforms, free from their manufacturers' vague age boundaries. The proposed categories, including No Code, Basic Code, and Advanced Code, are derived from the prior knowledge and the programming skills that a student needs to use them efficiently. Third, as the number of ER competitions, and tournaments increases in parallel with ER platforms' increase, the paper presents and analyses the most popular robotic events. Robotics competitions encourage participants to develop and showcase their skills while promoting specific learning outcomes. The paper aims to provide an overview of those structures and discuss their efficacy. Finally, the paper explores the educational aspects of the presented ER competitions and their correlation with the six proposed learning outcomes. This raises the question of which primary features compose a competition and achieve its' pedagogical goals. This paper is the first study that correlates potential learning gains with ER competitions to the best of our knowledge.

Research paper thumbnail of An E-Learning Adaptive System for Teaching Teachers How to Teach with Technology: A Perspective from Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualiza... more While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualization, development, and assessment of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) within the context of face-to-face learning experiences in higher education and teacher professional development settings, the authors herein posit that the framework of TPCK requires a technological solution, because the limited amount of time that is usually devoted in conventional teacher education courses and one-time only ICT training courses, as well as teachers' different needs, skills, knowledge, expectations, expertise, subject-matter area, and in general readiness, render traditional face-to-face learning experiences inadequate for providing ongoing TPCK development. On the basis of the above rationale, in this paper the authors introduce the design and development surrounding e-TPCK, an adaptive electronic learning environment that teacher educators, teacher trainers, and in-service and pre-service teachers can use to foster ongoing TPCK development.

Research paper thumbnail of An E-Learning Adaptive System for Teaching Teachers How to Teach with Technology: A Perspective from Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualiza... more While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualization, development, and assessment of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) within the context of face-to-face learning experiences in higher education and teacher professional development settings, the authors herein posit that the framework of TPCK requires a technological solution, because the limited amount of time that is usually devoted in conventional teacher education courses and one-time only ICT training courses, as well as teachers' different needs, skills, knowledge, expectations, expertise, subject-matter area, and in general readiness, render traditional face-to-face learning experiences inadequate for providing ongoing TPCK development. On the basis of the above rationale, in this paper the authors introduce the design and development surrounding e-TPCK, an adaptive electronic learning environment that teacher educators, teacher trainers, and in-service and pre-service teachers can use to foster ongoing TPCK development.

Research paper thumbnail of Introducing e-TPCK: An Adaptive E-Learning Technology for the Development of Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the effects of gender and scaffolding in developing preschool children’s computational thinking during problem-solving with Bee-Bots

Frontiers in Education

The research community has embraced computational thinking as an essential skill to develop in sc... more The research community has embraced computational thinking as an essential skill to develop in school and academic settings. Many researchers argue that computational thinking should be developed in the context of programming and robotic activities in all educational levels of education, starting from early childhood education. However, the factors related to developing computational thinking in preschool education are still under study. Furthermore, not too many empirical investigations provide evidence about the development of computational thinking in young children. The present study examined the effects of scaffolding and gender in developing young children’s sequencing and decomposition skills - two of the five skills that constitute computational thinking. The results indicated statistically significant effects about the type of scaffolding on children’s computational thinking in favor of the children assigned to the experimental groups. Lastly, boys outperformed girls on all...

Research paper thumbnail of Developing Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Education: A Focus on Algorithmic Thinking and the Role of Cognitive Differences and Scaffolding

Research paper thumbnail of Developing Preschool Children's Computational Thinking with Educational Robotics: The Role of Cognitive Differences and Scaffolding

Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2019)

The development of computational thinking is as important as writing, reading and arithmetic, and... more The development of computational thinking is as important as writing, reading and arithmetic, and, it should start as early as kindergarten (Wing, 2008). However, little has been done in terms of investigating the factors influencing the development of computational thinking in preschool education (

Research paper thumbnail of Educational Robotics: Platforms, Competitions and Expected Learning Outcomes

IEEE Access

Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around Educational Robotics (ER), this paper attemp... more Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around Educational Robotics (ER), this paper attempts to re-approach this area by suggesting new ways of thinking and exploring the related concepts. The contribution of the paper is fourfold. First, future readers can use this paper as a reference point for exploring the expected learning outcomes of educational robotics. From an exhaustive list of potential learning gains, we propose a set of six learning outcomes that can offer a starting point for a viable model for the design of robotic activities. Second, the paper aims to serve as a survey for the most recent ER platforms. Driven by the growing number of available robotics platforms, we have gathered the most recent ER kits. We also propose a new way to categorize the platforms, free from their manufacturers' vague age boundaries. The proposed categories, including No Code, Basic Code, and Advanced Code, are derived from the prior knowledge and the programming skills that a student needs to use them efficiently. Third, as the number of ER competitions, and tournaments increases in parallel with ER platforms' increase, the paper presents and analyses the most popular robotic events. Robotics competitions encourage participants to develop and showcase their skills while promoting specific learning outcomes. The paper aims to provide an overview of those structures and discuss their efficacy. Finally, the paper explores the educational aspects of the presented ER competitions and their correlation with the six proposed learning outcomes. This raises the question of which primary features compose a competition and achieve its' pedagogical goals. This paper is the first study that correlates potential learning gains with ER competitions to the best of our knowledge.

Research paper thumbnail of An E-Learning Adaptive System for Teaching Teachers How to Teach with Technology: A Perspective from Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualiza... more While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualization, development, and assessment of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) within the context of face-to-face learning experiences in higher education and teacher professional development settings, the authors herein posit that the framework of TPCK requires a technological solution, because the limited amount of time that is usually devoted in conventional teacher education courses and one-time only ICT training courses, as well as teachers' different needs, skills, knowledge, expectations, expertise, subject-matter area, and in general readiness, render traditional face-to-face learning experiences inadequate for providing ongoing TPCK development. On the basis of the above rationale, in this paper the authors introduce the design and development surrounding e-TPCK, an adaptive electronic learning environment that teacher educators, teacher trainers, and in-service and pre-service teachers can use to foster ongoing TPCK development.

Research paper thumbnail of An E-Learning Adaptive System for Teaching Teachers How to Teach with Technology: A Perspective from Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualiza... more While systematic and worthwhile research efforts have been undertaken regarding the conceptualization, development, and assessment of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) within the context of face-to-face learning experiences in higher education and teacher professional development settings, the authors herein posit that the framework of TPCK requires a technological solution, because the limited amount of time that is usually devoted in conventional teacher education courses and one-time only ICT training courses, as well as teachers' different needs, skills, knowledge, expectations, expertise, subject-matter area, and in general readiness, render traditional face-to-face learning experiences inadequate for providing ongoing TPCK development. On the basis of the above rationale, in this paper the authors introduce the design and development surrounding e-TPCK, an adaptive electronic learning environment that teacher educators, teacher trainers, and in-service and pre-service teachers can use to foster ongoing TPCK development.

Research paper thumbnail of Introducing e-TPCK: An Adaptive E-Learning Technology for the Development of Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge