Collaborative Research: ScratchJr: Computer Programming in Early Childhood Education as a Pathway to Academic Readiness and Success

合作研究：ScratchJr：幼儿教育中的计算机编程作为学术准备和成功的途径

• 批准号: 1118664
• 负责人: Marina Bers
• 金额: $ 79.65万
• 依托单位: Tufts University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1118664&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; ScratchJr; Computer; Programming

This collaborative project between Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is researching and developing a new version of the Scratch programming language to be called ScratchJr, designed specifically for early childhood education (K-2). The current version of Scratch, which is widely implemented, is intended for ages 8-16 and is not developmentally appropriate for young children. This work will provide research-based evidence regarding young children's abilities to use an object-oriented programming language and to study the impact this has on the children's learning of scientific concepts and procedures. The team will develop ScratchJr in an iterative cycle, testing it in both in the Devtech lab at Tufts and the Eliot Pearson lab school and with a wider network of early childhood partners. At the end of the three-year project, ScratchJr will have been tested with approximately 350 students in K-2, 40 parents, and 58 early childhood educators. ScratchJr will have three components: 1) a developmentally appropriate interface, with both touch screen and keyboard/mouse options; 2) an embedded library of curricular modules with STEM content to meet federal and state mandates in early childhood education; and 3) an on-line resource and community for early childhood educators and parents. The research questions focus on whether ScratchJr can help these young children learn foundational knowledge structures such as sequencing, causality, classification, composition, symbols, patterns, estimation, and prediction; specific content knowledge; and problem solving skills. This interdisciplinary proposal makes contributions to the fields of learning technologies, early childhood education and human computer interaction. ScratchJr has the potential for broad implementation in both formal and informal settings.

塔夫茨大学和麻省理工学院的这个合作项目正在研究和开发一种新版本的临时编程语言，名为ScratchJr，专门为幼儿教育(K-2)设计。目前广泛使用的Scratch版本是针对8-16岁的儿童的，在发育方面不适合幼儿。这项工作将为幼儿使用面向对象编程语言的能力提供基于研究的证据，并研究这对儿童学习科学概念和程序的影响。该团队将以迭代的方式开发ScratchJr，在塔夫茨的Devtech实验室和艾略特·皮尔森实验室以及更广泛的幼儿伙伴网络中对其进行测试。在为期三年的项目结束时，ScratchJr将在大约350名K-2学生、40名家长和58名幼儿教育工作者中进行测试。ScratchJr将有三个组成部分：1)适合发展的界面，包括触摸屏和键盘/鼠标选项；2)嵌入课程模块库，包含STEM内容，以满足联邦和州的幼儿教育要求；3)为幼儿教育工作者和家长提供在线资源和社区。研究问题集中在ScratchJr能否帮助这些幼儿学习基本知识结构，如排序、因果关系、分类、组成、符号、模式、估计和预测；具体内容知识；以及解决问题的技能。这项跨学科的建议对学习技术、幼儿教育和人机交互领域做出了贡献。ScratchJr具有在正式和非正式环境中广泛实施的潜力。