Contemporary Approaches to Integrating Computational Thinking Skills in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

Al-Ṭayyib, Ahad &#039;Abd Al-Qādir Aḥmad

doi:10.21608/jsrep.2024.366893

Contemporary Approaches to Integrating Computational Thinking Skills in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ahad 'Abd al-Qādir Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib

PhD Candidate, Department of Curriculum and Methods of Teaching Computer Education, College of Education, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

10.21608/jsrep.2024.366893

Abstract

Teaching computational thinking skills has become an increasingly popular topic among researchers. However, knowing how to effectively teach and learn computational thinking skills in early childhood is uncommon. Therefore, this study aims to identify the contemporary trends in integrating computational thinking skills in early childhood education for children aged 3 to 6 years. This is achieved through a systematic review of studies related to the subject, compiling and analysing them. The study adopted the PRISMA framework guidelines when reviewing and including relevant previous studies between 2019 and 2023. Data were obtained through a review of published study results in the following databases: ERIC, IEEE, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. A total of 16 studies in both Arabic and English were examined according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. After analysing the results of the studies, this study concluded that there is a positive impact of using robotics activities and digital environment applications in developing computational thinking skills in early childhood. In addition to how to benefit from it, this study also presented several recommendations, namely the need to fill knowledge gaps by presenting future research directions regarding the development and evaluation of computational thinking curricula in early childhood education and directing more research towards teaching computational thinking in digital environment.

Keywords

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