The effects of programming interventions in early childhood: A meta-analysis

IF 3.8 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL

Learning and Individual Differences Pub Date : 2025-04-21 DOI:10.1016/j.lindif.2025.102699

Bianca A. Simonsmeier , Kristin Kampmann , Jacqueline Staub , Ronny Scherer

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

While recent meta-analyses confirm the positive effects of programming interventions in school and university students, it is still unclear whether teaching programming in early childhood settings is similarly effective. Our meta-analysis clarifies this issue by synthesizing the effects of programming interventions for 3- to 7-year-old children. Moreover, we propose and employ a taxonomy for instructional approaches commonly used in programming interventions to systematically analyze the relevance of instructional design. The results from 25 early childhood studies and 82 effect sizes showed a medium overall effect of d = +0.73, 95 % CI [0.51, 0.96]. Programming interventions effectively enhanced programming knowledge, computational thinking, mathematics knowledge, and cognitive skills. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of unplugged over screen-based activities and interventions, including robotics, over those using other program outputs. The results provide educators with valuable information about instructional methods. The taxonomy can guide researchers and educators in implementing instructional strategies when teaching programming.

Educational relevance statement

The current meta-analysis extends the current understanding of programming interventions by summarizing the existing body of literature on the effectiveness of programming interventions in young children. Since there exists a growing interest in teaching programming to young children, the results make a useful contribution to determine its effectiveness and to identify effective instructional characteristics. The found results indicate that programming interventions are indeed significantly effective in early childhood to enhance a variety of outcomes. Further, the analyses provide information that allow educators to implement age-appropriate programming interventions in educational settings (e.g., by using unplugged programming activities or including robotics).

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幼儿期节目干预的效果：一项荟萃分析

虽然最近的荟萃分析证实了编程干预对中小学生和大学生的积极影响，但在幼儿环境中进行编程教学是否同样有效仍不清楚。我们的荟萃分析通过综合 3 至 7 岁儿童编程干预的效果，澄清了这一问题。此外，我们还提出并采用了编程干预中常用的教学方法分类法，以系统分析教学设计的相关性。来自 25 项幼儿研究和 82 个效应大小的结果显示，总体效应为 d = +0.73，95 % CI [0.51, 0.96]，处于中等水平。编程干预有效提高了编程知识、计算思维、数学知识和认知技能。我们的研究结果凸显了不插电比基于屏幕的活动和干预（包括机器人）比使用其他程序输出的活动和干预更有效。这些结果为教育工作者提供了有关教学方法的宝贵信息。当前的荟萃分析通过总结有关幼儿编程干预有效性的现有文献，扩展了当前对编程干预的理解。由于人们对幼儿编程教学的兴趣与日俱增，分析结果为确定其有效性和有效的教学特点做出了有益的贡献。研究结果表明，编程干预在幼儿期确实能显著提高各种成果。此外，分析还提供了相关信息，使教育工作者能够在教育环境中实施适合儿童年龄的编程干预措施（例如，通过使用不插电编程活动或加入机器人技术）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Learning and Individual Differences PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL-

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

2.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Learning and Individual Differences is a research journal devoted to publishing articles of individual differences as they relate to learning within an educational context. The Journal focuses on original empirical studies of high theoretical and methodological rigor that that make a substantial scientific contribution. Learning and Individual Differences publishes original research. Manuscripts should be no longer than 7500 words of primary text (not including tables, figures, references).