impact study
of new technologies
in children's learning
Mendoza and Corrientes, Argentina
Together with Marina Bers, co-creator of scratch jr, and in conjunction with the DevTech team of the Boston College and Scratch Foundation, we are promoting a research to understand how new technologies that engage in programming and creation can play a positive role in children's development and learning.
Coding as Another Language or CAL approach developed by Professor Marina Umaschi Bers, understands computer learning as a new literacy for the 21st century that helps young learners develop new ways of thinking, expressing themselves, and new opportunities to make the world a better place. Based on this approach, Professor Bers and her DevTech research group have developed the CAL curriculum and designed a study to measure the impact of the curricula.
Together, we are promoting an impact study (RCT) and academic publication about programming skills in kindergarten students and first cycle of primary school in schools in Argentina using Scratch Jr.This is the first study in the Spanish language in all of Latin America of the CAL-ScratchJr curriculum..
How do we carry it out?
A group of teachers from first and second grade of primary school were trained with the CAL approach. Classrooms in Mendoza and Corrientes were then assigned to learn the ScratchJr coding language or be part of a control group, teaching normally. The students completed two assessments at the beginning and end of the study:
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Stages of Coding (CSA) which assesses children's coding knowledge and stage of coding development;
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TechCheck that assesses children's computational thinking.
Student results suggest that the curriculum significantly improved student scores on the CSA and TechCheck assessments compared to the control condition.
Results:
On the ScratchJr coding language CSA assessment, students had an average starting score of 4.06 (SD = 2.63). At the end of the program, students who completed the curriculum had an average score of 10.47 (SD = 3.62), compared to students in the control group who had an average CSA score of 6.15 (SD = 3.05). A similar pattern was seen in the TechCheck assessment of computational thinking. The mean baseline TechCheck score was 8.48 (SD = 2.59). On the second test, students who completed the curriculum had an average grade of 10.43 (SD = 2.45), compared to students in the control group who had an average grade of 9.80 (SD = 1.97).
Recipients and scope
Teachers and directors of kindergartens, schools and educational parks and applicants to enter management positions in the Municipality of Córdoba and other jurisdictions.
57
teachers
22
schools reached
560
elementary school students
