The cognitive and neural mechanisms of computer programming in young children: storytelling or solving puzzles?

幼儿计算机编程的认知和神经机制：讲故事还是解决难题？

• 批准号: 1744802
• 负责人: Marina Bers
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Tufts University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1744802&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: cognitive; neural; mechanisms; computer; programming

Research and policy changes over the recent years have brought a newfound focus on STEM for young children. Policy decisions regarding how and when to introduce computer science education would benefit from additional data. This project will investigate the cognitive and neural basis of learning computer science in early childhood. The project will use functional MRI to evaluate the novel hypothesis that engaging in programming activities can be similar to engaging in language comprehension and production. This project comes at a time when there is a re-envisioning of STEM in early childhood education as well as a push for integrating coding at all levels of the educational system. This empirical project will provide critical insights into the cognitive and neural basis of programming, which is key for furthering the goal to bring computer science for all and the design of learning technologies for young children.This interdisciplinary project will focus on understanding the cognitive and neural basis of computer programming in young children. Since computer programming is traditionally associated with problem solving it is taught as a STEM discipline. However, the underlying assumption that programming abilities are related to math and general problem solving skills has not gone unchallenged. Some researchers proposed that learning a programming language may also be related to the cognitive processes associated with literacy, akin to acquiring a foreign language. In this interdisciplinary project the research team will use functional MRI to evaluate whether engaging in coding and computational thinking primarily activates the domain-general problem-solving brain regions (the fronto-parietal multiple demand network), and whether it additionally engages the fronto-temporal language network. The team will ask this question by conducting a pilot study with children 8 years of age programming with ScratchJr, an introductory programming language developed by the PI. Understanding whether engaging in computer programming primarily relies on domain-general problem-solving resources or whether it additionally engages language processing mechanisms, will provide critical insights into the cognitive and neural basis of programming, which is needed for understanding learning trajectories in computational thinking, developing effective learning technologies, and making policy recommendations for incorporating the teaching of computer science.

近年来的研究和政策变化使人们重新关注儿童的STEM。有关如何以及何时引入计算机科学教育的政策决定将受益于额外的数据。本项目将探讨儿童早期学习计算机科学的认知和神经基础。该项目将使用功能性核磁共振成像来评估参与编程活动可能类似于参与语言理解和生产的新假设。该项目出台之际，人们正在重新设想儿童早期教育中的STEM，并推动将编码纳入各级教育系统。这个实证项目将为编程的认知和神经基础提供重要的见解，这是进一步实现为所有人提供计算机科学和为幼儿设计学习技术的关键。这个跨学科的项目将专注于理解幼儿计算机编程的认知和神经基础。由于计算机编程传统上与解决问题有关，因此它被作为STEM学科教授。然而，编程能力与数学和一般问题解决能力相关的潜在假设并非没有受到挑战。一些研究人员提出，学习一门编程语言也可能与读写能力相关的认知过程有关，类似于学习一门外语。在这个跨学科项目中，研究团队将使用功能性MRI来评估从事编码和计算思维是否主要激活了领域一般问题解决的大脑区域（额-顶叶多需求网络），以及它是否额外参与额-颞叶语言网络。该团队将通过对使用ScratchJr （PI开发的介绍性编程语言）编程的8岁儿童进行试点研究来提出这个问题。了解从事计算机编程是否主要依赖于领域通用问题解决资源，或者是否额外涉及语言处理机制，将提供对编程的认知和神经基础的关键见解，这对于理解计算思维的学习轨迹，开发有效的学习技术以及为整合计算机科学教学制定政策建议是必要的。