Kids and Coding

In the developing world of the 21st century, a push for increased computer literacy and programming skills in pre-collegiate levels of education has arisen. Every academic summer camp seems to advertise its focus on it, while every toy company appears to be producing its version of a tech-skill friendly product.?

Two popular trains of thought fuel the push for computer literacy: coding as a critical 21st century skill and coding as a means to increased cognitive ability. For parents of the age group that bears the brunt of the coding focus, elementary and middle school students, understanding the validity of the ideas behind computer literacy is crucial. As computer literacy grows in popularity, parents should recognize the value of coding as a skill, while understanding that even though computer literacy skills are often equated to mental development, in the end, coding is one powerful tool for learning, among many.

Growth in Computer Literacy Popularity

The idea that coding is as indispensable as it is currently believed to be came from a 2006 essay entitled “Computational Thinking” by Jeanette Wing, Director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Columbia. In her essay, Wing made the statement that “computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child's analytical ability.”2 With that claim, Wing brought to popularity not only the phrase ‘computational thinking’ and its ties to computer science, but also the idea that the computer literacy focus should be aimed at children.?

?Coding as a Skill

Since then, an everyday definition of computational thinking has developed. Wing’s essay has encouraged common usage of the term ‘computational thinking’ (CT) to refer to the skills needed to run a computer.

Computer Literacy In Industry

Wing’s claim that everyone should have computational thinking abilities, coupled with the colloquial definition that coding is computational thinking, has led to the belief that running a computer is a critical skill for every person in every industry. Thus, coding has become an emphasis in early education.

CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association is a non-profit American based trade association and the industry leader in offering prestigious technological certifications to IT professionals since 1982. In their 2020 IT Industry Outlook Report, company management figures were surveyed and asked which skills would grow in demand as companies developed. Figure 1 records their responses. Managers believe that the need for technical skills, both within professionals’ areas of expertise and outside of them, will grow by just under 50%.

Reprinted from the 2020 It (Information Technology) Industry Trends Analysis: Business of Technology

Not only will professionals need to know more in-depth technological skills in their area of work, they will also need to have a working knowledge of technological skills outside of it. As a result, accountants will need to know how a database is programmed, illustrators will have to understand the inner-workings of their digital illustration tools and the average worker will need to have a broader and stronger grasp on general computer language than ever before.

Technical skills, such as coding, are in high demand and will only become more so. Therefore, they are imperative to success in the developing world, not just for industries as a whole, but specifically for individuals within them. Thus, young people, as the future leaders and consumers of industries, are the target of the coding focus.

Speed of Technological Development

Jessica Ralli, a Coordinator of Early Literacy Programs and Children's Book Author located in Brooklyn, New York has said that as “a critical 21st-century skill, coding is infused more and more into games, apps, toys, and curricula for young children.”4 While there has always been a pressure for all age groups to keep up with current technology in order to stay relevant, expectation. Whereas the past generation had to learn how to use computers, the current generation has grown up with computers, the rising generation must understand and speak the language of computers.

“[as] a critical 21st-century skill, coding is infused more and more into games, apps, toys, and curricula for young children.”

Oakyoung Han, professor at the Sungkyun Software Education Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, and Jaehyoun Kim, professor in the Department of Computer Education of Sungkyunkwan University, explained why instruction on computer use must change. They shared that because technology is advancing at such an accelerated pace, instruction in how to use computers, which used to be necessary, is now insufficient.5 As soon as a skill or program is learned, new developments would render that knowledge obsolete. Thus, computer instruction in the present must to go beyond what it has in the past, not only in subject, with new technologies and programs, but also in nature, with new skills and ways of thinking.

In essence, computer education of the past could be compared to having students memorize what a sentence says, but the computer education of today, on the other hand, is like teaching the students to read.?

Coding and Mental Development

However, computational thinking, as discussed by Wing, has developed a second definition beyond the ability to manipulate a computer. CT can also be related to a way of thinking which contribute to computer programming and coding but also to general problem-solving skills. The second definition focuses on how CT is the ability to think like a computer, and ultimately, solve problems like one. Between the two definitions, computational thinking means being able to run a computer, but also to be able to run like a computer.

Computational Thinking and Coding

Popular opinion holds that learning the language of computers, i.e., coding, must result in increased CT abilities and therefore strengthened cognitive abilities. However, this line of logic causes two questions to arise: what are computational thinking abilities and are they actually strengthened by code-based learning??

Components of Computational Thinking

According to Mohammad Ahsan Habib of the Department of Software Engineering and a faculty in Computer Science at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, there are five skills that make up CT: abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic thinking, evaluation and generalization.6

Abstraction is the ability to filter and determine which aspects of a pattern are not necessary and then ignoring them in favor of the ones which are.

Decomposition skills allow an individual to break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Algorithmic thinking is the ability to solve a problem methodically, with a defined set of steps. Rather than just solving a problem once, algorithmic thinking creates a series of actions to take that will solve a problem of that nature every time.

Evaluation is the ability to ensure the solution does the job it has been designed to do and to think about how it could be improved.

Generalization is the ability to take solutions to one problem and adapt them to be solutions in future situations.

?The above skills are clearly not specific to computers and programming. They are important abilities to have for general problem solving. In addition, having competency in the five areas of CT allows an individual to have greater ability to see cause and effect, be more explicit and clearer in communication, and have a fine -tuned ability for self-expression and understanding. Developing computational thinking components does not result in a robotic and impersonal individual, but causes more apt development in the soft skills of communication and interpersonal relationships, and the humanities subjects, as well as the STEM subjects. Overall, CT skills lead to a well-rounded and critical thinker.

Studies on Programming and Children

But does code-based learning in developmental years actually help elevate computational thinking skills? Barbara Arfé, a PhD of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, her associates Chiara Montuori, and Marta Lavanga, also in Psychology and Socialization, and Tuillo Vardanega, associate professor of Mathematics, all?from the University of Padova in Padua, Italy conducted a study to explore the idea.7 ?

The study followed 38 second graders for eight months. The students were split into two groups. After a pretest that judged their planning, accuracy and problem-solving skills, both groups were exposed to standard teaching activities for seven months. Once the seven months of instruction were complete, they were tested again and one group continued to undergo an additional month of standard instruction while the second group had their curriculum switched to one month of coding-based learning. At the end of the additional month of standard or code-based learning, respectively, the children in both groups were again tested.

The results of the experiment showed that for the group exposed to the month of coding, the planning and accuracy skills that were developed in that one month were equivalent to the skills gained over the course of the previous seven months of general instruction.

Data sourced from Coding in Primary Grades Boosts Children’s Executive Functions, Arfé, Barbara, Tullio Vardanega, Chiara Montuori, and Marta Lavanga

Figure 2 depicts the accuracy scores for the experimental group at each month of the study. The sharp increase of the line at the seven-month mark indicates that the increase in accuracy scores that took seven months to achieve were achieved in one month of code-based learning. For problem solving skills, the students’ improvement in the one month of coding significantly surpassed the improvements in the previous seven-month general education period. The control group that was not exposed to the month of coding education did not see statistically significant improvement beyond what was expected to result with general instruction in any of the three tested skills.

Coding in Learning

?Coding is shown to be a useful tool in developing the components of computational thinking.?Its usefulness is due to the unique experiences it can give the learner that are not possible in a normal classroom setting.

Coding as a Unique Experience

The unique experiences offered by coding are explained by Michael Lodi and Simone Martini, professors in the Department of Computer Science and Science and Engineering of University of Bologna when they said “children have to impose on themselves rigor and precision in instructing the computer.”8

Because of the immediate feedback of coding (either the code solves the problem or it does not), the specificity it requires, and the demand for fully formed and aptly communicated ideas, coding teaches computational thinking in a way few other things can. For example, because a teacher contains the human abilities of inference and interpretation and does not enforce or necessitate exact communication of a concept, a classroom setting cannot replicate the experiences of computer programming in teaching CT skills.

Coding is a Tool

However, a focus on computational thinking components is the key. Even in the study conducted by Arfé, Montuori, Lavanga and Vardanega, the three skills they were building and observing in the students fell under the five CT components: planning under decomposition, accuracy under evaluation, and problem solving under algorithmic thinking.

Increased computational thinking skills are not natural by-products of computer literacy.

Lodi and Martini continue by saying “it is lessons in coding, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences and language arts, taught according to computational thinking skills and not mere programming or coding education, which affect an increase” in mental ability.9 The point that is often forgotten in the excitement over coding is that increased computational thinking skills are not natural by-products of computer literacy. Rather, code-based learning is a tool that can be used to focus on CT skills.

Conclusion

Coding for kids is important. The direction the industries of the world are heading, and the speed at which they are moving, make programming and computer literacy not only a marketable skill, but a necessary one. Knowing how to use a computer is no longer enough; the coming generation must know how to speak the language of computers. Beyond that, using coding as a tool in education has clear benefits. Although coding itself does not miraculously produce geniuses as popular thought heralds, it is an undeniably powerful and unique tool for teaching important developmental skills. When applied correctly and focused on developing computational thinking components, code-based learning has the potential to be the education method of the future.

Sources

1 Photograph. n.d. ?https://www.techadvisor.com/cmsdata/features/3520917/kids-and-computers-800.jpg.

2 Wing, Jeannette. “Computational Thinking and Thinking about Computing.”?2008 IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, 2008, https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/1118178.1118215

3 2020 It (Information Technology) Industry Trends Analysis: Business of Technology: Comptia.” Default. CompTIA, 2020. https://www.comptia.org/content/research/it-industry-outlook-2020

4 Ralli, Jessica. "All Aboard Coding Express: LEGO Product Teaches Coding Concepts to Young Children."?School Library Journal?64, no. 13 (12, 2018): 18. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2214950638?accountid=4488

5 Han, Oakyoung, and Jaehyoun Kim. “The Study on Correlation of Cognition on Software Education with Improvement of Computational Thinking.”?Journal of Internet Computing and Services?20, no. 3 (June 30, 2019): 93–100. doi:10.7472/JKSII.2019.20.3.93. https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=107c69a5-5696-49dc-a184-34728a4f5c1c%40redis

6 Habib, Mohammad Ahsan; Raja-Jamilah, Raja-Yusof; Siti, Salwah Salim; Asmiza, Abdul Sani; Hazrina, Sofian; and Aishah, Abu Bakar. “Analyzing Students’ Experience in Programming with Computational Thinking through Competitive, Physical, and Tactile Games: The Quadrilateral Method Approach.” TURKISH JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING & COMPUTER SCIENCES 29, no. 5 (2021): 2280–97. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=252dce19-851c-4af9-8681-3b4177b86d08%40redis

7 Arfé, Barbara, Tullio Vardanega, Chiara Montuori, and Marta Lavanga. “Coding in Primary Grades Boosts Children’s Executive Functions.” Frontiers in Psychology 10 (2019). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02713/full

8 Lodi, M., Martini, S. Computational Thinking, Between Papert and Wing.?Sci & Educ?30,?883–908 (2021). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-021-00202-5

9 Lodi, M., Martini, S.