Encouraging early mastery of computational concepts through play

TL;DR

This paper presents a set of playful computational activities designed for classrooms and code clubs that balance open-ended play with structured rigor to facilitate reproducible learning of computational concepts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework for designing playful yet structured activities that promote early mastery of computational concepts in educational settings.

Findings

Activities are effective in engaging children in computational thinking.

Structured play enhances reproducibility across different educational contexts.

The approach balances exploration with pedagogical rigor.

Abstract

Learning to code, and more broadly, learning about computer science is a growing field of activity and research. Under the label of computational thinking, computational concepts are increasingly used as cognitive tools in many subject areas, beyond computer science. Using playful approaches and gamification to motivate educational activities, and to encourage exploratory learning is not a new idea since play has been involved in the learning of computational concepts by children from the very start. There is a tension however, between learning activities and opportunities that are completely open and playful, and learning activities that are structured enough to be easily replicable among contexts, countries and classrooms. This paper describes the conception, refinement, design and evaluation of a set of playful computational activities for classrooms or code clubs, that balance the benefits of playfulness with sufficient rigor and structure to enable robust replication.