Examining Coding Skills of Five-year-old Children

In this episode I unpack Metin, Basaran, and Kalyenci’s (2023) publication titled “Examining coding skills of five-year-old children,” which investigates whether gender, parent education, or socioeconomic status has an impact on coding abilities of five-year-olds.

Welcome back to another episode of the
csk8 podcast my name is Jared O'Leary
each week of this podcast is either an
interview with a guest or multiple
guests a really solo episode where I
unpacks some scholarship in relation to
Computer Science Education in this
week's episode I'm unpacking a paper
titled examining coding skills of
five-year-old children and is by sermon
matin mahmet bazaran and damla calencia
apologies if I mispronounce any names
use the abstract for this paper quote
the purpose of This research is to
examine the coding skills of
five-year-old children in terms of some
variables the research sample comprises
kindergarten affiliated with the
ministry of National Education and
gazian tep City Center in the 2021-2022
Academic Year as a data collection tool
in the research the personal information
form which includes personal information
about children and their parents and
coding test 2 the short form of coding
test and coding test developed by
clinencia at all were used to evaluate
the coding skill levels of five-year-old
children Pearson correlation analysis
t-test ananova were used to analyze data
as a result of the findings obtained
from the research it was concluded that
coding skills were not related to gender
but were related to whether the children
had coding education the education level
of parents and their families income
level end quote far to summarizes paper
into a single sentence I'd say that this
paper investigates whether gender parent
education or socioeconomic status has an
impact on coding abilities of
five-year-olds in Turkey as always you
can find a link to this paper in the
show notes at geraldolary.com or by
simply clicking the link in the app that
you're listening to the song and will
take you directly to the show notes this
paper is open access so you can't
actually read the whole thing which is
wonderful alright so in the introduction
of the paper the authors are kind of
talking about how coding is an essential
literacy or skill for the 21st century
they summarize what coding is but I'm
assuming I don't need to really talk
about that to this particular audience
in particular they talk about the coding
in general as well as some of the
educational approaches related to coding
are often discussed in relation to
coding like Piaget and papert they talk
about how people have tried AI to
evaluate different coding skills as well
as some of the different factors that
have impacted coding skills According to
some different studies so if you're
interested in reading more of the
background or those different topics or
the review of literature I highly
recommend taking a look at some of the
papers in the opening couple of pages
now the method section talks about how
they had 160 different kindergarten age
children in the agassiantep province
they also discuss how they use two
different types of coding tests so one
is just coding tests and the other is
coding test two so the first one is a
little bit longer so it's about 30 to 45
minutes whereas the second one is 10 15
minutes in order to actually conduct it
and so this process allows a
practitioner like a teacher or someone
or a researcher to tell a story and then
ask kids to kind of point with their
finger onto some different um like mats
to be able to basically describe like
how a character in a story might be able
to solve a problem and so like kind of
give a little point of okay they're
going to go through the maze this way
and go up and collect this thing Etc
this makes it so that the students
actually don't need to be able to read
but just need to be able to listen and
then can just kind of like interact with
different manipulatives or just simply
point to different things so this is a
really interesting way of doing a test
with early and pre-readers which if
you're interested in learning more about
early and pre-readers in terms of coding
I highly recommend taking a look at some
of the podcasts on my website so in
particular take a look at the episode
titled exploring csnct in pre-k with
Gail lovely that's on episode 11. it was
a long time ago we're like on episode
that I recommend is the place for joy in
teaching and learning with Sarah Lev and
that's from episode 122. both of those
kind of specialize in talking about
coding and computational thinking with
early and pre-readers and I include a
link to both of those in the show notes
at Gerald leary.com okay so that was a
summary of the first half of the paper
basically I'm going through this one
pretty quick because a lot of this
information I think most the people in
the audience probably already know like
what coding is and how you might teach
it Etc so let's talk about the results
let's get a little bit nerdy one of the
findings that they have this is from
page six quote gender does not affect
children's as coding skills end quote
now I've done several different podcast
episodes that talk about gender I link
to all of them in the tag in the show
notes and there are a couple that I'd
like to kind of point out one is how
early does a CS gender gap emerge a
study of collaborative problem solving
in fifth grade computer science so this
one is interesting because it talks
about how there is like this tendency
for by the time kids get into Middle
School there is this Gap in gender but
that doesn't necessarily happen in early
ages and this study kind of re-verifies
that with this different subpopulation
so it's basically saying that hey if by
the time kids are five years old they
don't have this Gap in terms of coding
ability but we have found some other
studies that we've talked about in this
podcast where there is a gap that
emerges and it's usually late Elementary
early middle school when that tends to
happen but another really interesting
podcast episode that I did was on a
paper that was titled the intersection
of gender race and cultural boundaries
are why is computer science in Malaysia
dominated by women and that one was
fascinating so in that particular
episode they talk about how the women in
Malaysia are a higher percentage in the
stem and I.T and CS Fields compared to
men and so it talks about how it is not
a just like a gender characteristic but
more of a cultural characteristic that
might lead to certain genders dominating
some Fields over others and if you want
to learn more about that take a look at
that podcast episode that was from
episode 74 so that was a long time ago
but is a really interesting study to
take a look at and I do include a link
to it in the show notes in that episode
okay so the authors found that gender
did not have any kind of impact but the
authors did find that prior education
related to coding and experience with
coding did have an impact on how
students scored in their tests so
basically the authors found if you had
more experience with coding you're going
to score higher with coding this is for
five-year-olds and that makes sense if
you listen to the episode that I did on
K Anders Erickson's cramps and test
rumors paper and was titled the role of
deliberate practice in the acquisition
of expert performance that kind of talks
about how it's really that like the
thing that was popularized by Malcolm
Gladwell the 10 000 hour rule that's
kind of like not really true it's kind
of uh just a base number that was drawn
from Erickson's work as well as some
many other scholars in like sports
psychology in particular and they talk
about how different domains have
different levels of practice that are
needed to achieve that expertise or
International level of performance so if
you want to learn more about that and
how that kind of like impacts education
or Computer Science Education in
particular and my own thoughts on it I
highly recommend taking a look at that
particular episode that is episode 66 if
you're interested in it so now let's get
into the third result from this paper so
they found that the parents educational
levels did have an impact on how
students would do with the coding or
with responding to these problems
solving so the authors know that it's
both the mother and father's education
levels has an impact on how students
would perform on this now there is a bit
of a heteronormative bias here it did
not mention any same-sex relationships
but maybe it's just like the smaller
sample size or something maybe they
didn't have any in those particular
families but either way the results
showed that the more educated the
parents are the higher the students are
going to perform on these kinds of tests
and the final result that they talk
about is how socioeconomic status also
has an impact on how well the students
are going to perform they found that
quote children's coding skills increases
as the family income level increases end
quote it's from page seven so here's a
quote from page eight this is in the
discussion conclusion and implications
quote the higher educational status of
parents allow children to have a more
advantageous background thus children
with good backgrounds are more exposed
to technological tools allowing them to
develop their coding skills better from
the early years end quote a little bit
further down in the next paragraph quote
when suitable environmental conditions
are provided for children to access
technological tools these tools support
their coding skills end quote okay so
that makes sense so if you listen to
that episode that I do on the expertise
and skill acquisition and whatnot talks
about how basically the more deliberate
time you spend working on something the
better you can be with it okay that
makes sense like playing the drums that
are behind me I in order to get better
at it I had to practice many many hours
if I wanted to get better than people
who started earlier than I did I had to
put in more time and make up for it and
practice more efficiently than other
people so same thing with coding when
kids are learning how to code whether
they're five-year-olds or 15 year olds
or whatever the more time they're able
to invest in it and not only just like
coding but also using technology and
understanding different things you can
do with technology the higher they're
going to perform when it comes to this
so as Educators we need to look at not
just what students are doing in the
classroom and having access to coding
and computer science education that's
wonderful yes we need to focus on that
but we also need to look at how there is
a gap outside of school that can impact
students understanding of coding you're
going to really need to factor in not
only what students are doing in the
classroom but what they have access to
before they come to your class and
outside of the class so I would
sometimes have some kids come to the
classroom and they'd be like hey check
out this really cool program that I made
over the weekend and I'd look at it and
be like wow this is awesome it shows
that you publish this at like 11 o'clock
on Saturday evening maybe you should
have been sleeping instead but good job
with your project there were other kids
who wanted to also do that however they
did not have access to either a device
or to internet this was pre-covered so
this was several years ago and so
devices weren't as necessary for at-home
learning so the students who did not
have access to those devices they simply
did not have the time to be able to
practice it's like if I wanted to get
good at playing the drums I need to be
able to have access to like drumsticks
and a drum set or whatever if I don't
have access to that kind of equipment I
can't practice I effectively as somebody
who does so although there are
opportunities to be able to do unplugged
lessons and things like that when it
comes to coding those who have access to
be able to actually apply their
knowledge into a device is it's just
going to be like night and day in terms
of their understandings from those who
don't have that access over an extended
period of time if you were to look at
something over the course of like a week
or a month or a unit or maybe even a
semester you might not notice a huge
change but I can almost guarantee you
that there's going to be a drastic
difference between those who have access
and those who do not over like a decade
or so so we need to not only look at
what's going on in the classroom but
what is also going on outside of the
classroom that might impact how students
will be able to perform in our class all
right so that's actually the end of this
paper I skipped like the first third of
it because it's basically reviewable
literature and the next main section was
just talking about the methods and
whatnot you want to take take a look at
it you can just check it out in the show
notes again jaredulary.com but now I've
gone to share some lingering questions
or thoughts at the end of these like
unpacking scholarship episodes so the
first question or thought that I have is
what other factors at home might impact
the students you work with so going off
of the rant that I was just talking
about with expertise what students have
access to and what they're able to
practice outside of your classroom can
have a profound impact on how well they
will perform inside of it this can also
be within your school so if you have
like an isolated computer science class
where you are the only teacher who is
dedicated to teaching computer science
let's say at your Elementary School like
I was cool every single kid might be
required to go to that class and they're
all going to attend it that's great but
what if you have I don't know let's say
the fourth grade department and there's
a couple of teachers in there but only
one of them is also integrating computer
science in that class but the other two
teachers are not well in that case then
a third of the students are likely going
to excel faster than the other
two-thirds who do not have access to
computer science in those classes the
more exposure the more opportunities to
apply understandings in new context both
within School outside of school in
formal informal non-formal learning
content
Etc all of this is going to add up and
make it so that the more experienced
students are going to likely perform
better than the less experienced
students think of this in relation to
again like music or another literacy or
literally another language like the more
you practice doing something the better
you're going to get at it when I was
practicing Japanese more I was getting
better at it I haven't been practicing
it as much lately and my Japanese has
suffered from it it's the same thing
when it comes to any kind of domain or
skill you're trying to develop so with
all of those rants being said how might
you address access and Equity at gaps
that might exist in the communities that
you work with whether it's access to
devices or to internet maybe some of
that has been solved after remote
learning has become a more popular thing
but what about access in other classes
what about access to more supplemental
resources before and after school what
about access within your class now if
you reflect back onto episode number 106
lifelong kindergarten with Mitch resin
Nick in that conversation Mitch talks
about how it's very important for
researchers to consider not only how to
prove something but also how to improve
something so if you are a researcher or
a district admin or a leader in your
community or whatever how might you be
able to improve the access and Equity
gaps that might exist in relation to
some of the things that we just learned
about in this particular episode as well
as other ones in your community not just
in your classroom but outside of your
classroom if we begin to think more
systematically about how what we are
doing in the classes impacted by what is
going on outside of the class that are
more holistic approach we can begin to
take a look at and maybe address how
different factors will impact how
students perform in our classes this is
across the grade level I've seen this
happen not only with the kindergarten
students but all the way up through the
graduate students that I was working
with like there's so much that goes on
outside of the classroom that is going
to impact students is learning so if
there's one main takeaway that I can
recommend for this particular episode
it's to to really think through how
there are so many factors that impact
students is learning and not just look
at like what's going on in the classroom
itself but also think about how you
might improve the things going on
outside of the classroom and that would
have an impact on learning itself within
the classroom so I know it's easier said
than done like especially if you have
several hundred students that you're
working with at any period like I did as
opposed to a single class with like I
don't know 30 some odd students
something like that but if you are able
to think about how there's other factors
outside of your classroom itself that
are impacting the learning on going on
inside of your classroom that might be
what I have like a big shift in terms of
how you approach the classes that you
are working with for myself the thing
that I really focused on was going for
individualized learning within a shared
group space so I encourage peer-to-peer
learning but while I was walking around
I was trying to work with students
one-on-one rather than addressing the
full group and have everybody doing the
same thing and going at the same pace so
I was doing several programming
languages all in the same shared space
students could pick what programming
language they want on what kind of
platform to create what kind of project
that interested them so some of them
were coding music others were coding
games some were coding stories some work
recording animation or apps for other
like iPad or whatever this not only
accounted for a like variegated interest
with the students themselves but it also
accounted for different levels of
expertise and understandings so I had
some students who were coming in and
were able to build off of years of Prior
experience using technology and maybe
even coding before coming into my class
and then I had other students who were
like in Middle School who literally
never saw a computer until they came
into my classroom being able to have
that kind of a spread in a class from
very novice to very experienced you need
to be able to adjust so for me the
answer was to focus on one-on-one
individualized pedagogy which is
something that I call interest driven
learning now if you want to learn more
about some of the pedagogies that I use
or as well as I like how to apply this
into curriculum I've included some
episodes in the show notes that are
linked in there that I recommend
checking out like rhizomatic learning
with Catherine bornhurst John Stapleton
and Katie Henry or the episode that's
titled applications of affinity space
characteristics and computer science
education so that's episode 89 and the
rhizomatic podcast is episode 75. this
is episode 171 so there are plenty more
episodes that you can take a look at or
listen to that will hopefully assist you
with your Journeys through Computer
Science Education I know this was a
little bit of a shorter episode but I
hope you found it useful if you did
please consider sharing with somebody
else or leaving a review on whatever app
you're listening to this on stay tuned
next week for another episode until then
I hope you're all staying safe and are
having a wonderful week

Article

Metin, S., Basaran, M., & Kalyenci, D. (2023). Examining coding skills of five-year-old children. Pedagogical Research, 8(2), em0154. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/12802

Abstract

“The purpose of this research is to examine the coding skills of five-year-old children in terms of some variables. The research sample comprises 160 children aged five years studying in kindergarten affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Gaziantep city center in the 2021-2022 academic year. As a data collection tool in the research, the “personal information form,” which includes personal information about children and their parents, and “CodingTest 2”, the short form of “CodingTest” and “CodingTest,” developed by Kalyenci et al. (2022), were used to evaluate the coding skill levels of five-year-old children. Pearson correlation analysis, t-test, and ANOVA were used to analyze data. As a result of the findings obtained from the research, it was concluded that coding skills were not related to gender but were related to whether the children had coding education, the education level of parents, and their families’ income level.”

Author Keywords

Early childhood, coding, coding skills

My One Sentence Summary

This paper investigates whether gender, parent education, or socioeconomic status has an impact on coding abilities of five-year-olds.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

What other factors at home might impact the students you work with?
How might you address access and equity gaps that exist in the communities you work with?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
- Applications of Affinity Space Characteristics in [Computer Science] Education
  - In this episode I unpack my (2020) publication titled “Applications of affinity space characteristics in music education,” which has twelve characteristics of informal learning spaces that I will discuss in relation to computer science education.
- Exploring CS and CT in Pre-K with Gail Lovely
  - In this interview with Gail Lovely, we discuss navigating appropriate behavior with digital technologies, some considerations for early and pre readers, how to respond to concerns about screen time, metaphors of education as playpens and playgrounds, learning CS/coding through literacy, and much more.
- How Early Does the CS gender Gap Emerge? A Study of Collaborative Problem Solving in 5th Grade Computer Science
  - In this episode I unpack Tsan, Boyer, and Lynch’s (2016) publication titled “How early does the CS gender gap emerge? A study of collaborative problem solving in 5th grade computer science,” which investigates the potential impact of gendered groups on the quality of completed Scratch projects in an in-school computer science class for 5th grade students.
- Lifelong Kindergarten with Mitch Resnick
  - In this interview with Mitch Resnick, we discuss misconceptions people have around the four P’s (Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play) in Mitch’s book, encouraging depth of understanding while playing, what has surprised Mitch during his career, encouraging online communication and collaboration without creating artificial engagement, what Mitch wishes we’d see more of and discuss in CS education, our pet peeves with unplugged activities and computational thinking, accounting for survivorship bias with Scratch, expanding our focus on equity and inclusion to include both the “who” and the “how,” the importance of experimenting and learning through play, and much more.
- Rhizomatic Learning with Catherine Bornhorst, Jon Stapleton, and Katie Henry
  - In this panel discussion with Catherine Bornhorst, Jon Stapleton, and Katie Henry, we discuss what rhizomatic learning is and looks like in formalized educational spaces, affordances and constraints of rhizomatic learning, how to support individual students within a group setting, standards and rhizomatic learning, why few people know and use rhizomatic learning approaches, how to advocate for and learn more about rhizomatic learning, and much more.
- The Intersection of Gender, Race and Cultural Boundaries, or Why is Computer Science in Malaysia Dominated by Women?
  - In this episode I unpack Mellström’s (2009) publication titled “The intersection of gender, race and cultural boundaries, or why is computer science in Malaysia dominated by women?,” which “points to a western bias of gender and technology studies, and argues for cross-cultural work and intersectional understandings including race, class, age and sexuality” (p. 885).
- The Place for Joy in Teaching and Learning with Sara Lev
  - In this interview with Sara Lev, we discuss the place for joy in teaching and learning, the impact of remote learning on PBL in early childhood, misconceptions around PBL in early childhood, encouraging curiosity by responding to questions with questions, social and emotional learning, the impact of yoga and meditation on teaching, and so much more.
- The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance
  - In this episode I unpack Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer’s (1993) publication titled “The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance,” which debunks the notion of innate abilities within a domain and describes the role of deliberate practice in achieving expert performance.
- More episodes related to gender
- More episodes related to interest-driven learning
- More episodes related to pre and early readers
- All other episodes
Find other CS educators and resources by using the #CSK8 hashtag on Twitter