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References

Core Texts

Bers, M. U. (2018). Coding as a Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom. Routledge. Publisher

Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Harvard University Press. Publisher

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. Basic Books. Free PDF

Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The Psychology of the Child. Basic Books. Internet Archive

Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play. MIT Press. Publisher

Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational Thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35. DOI: 10.1145/1118178.1118215 | Free PDF

Supplementary Readings

Bell, T., Witten, I. H., & Fellows, M. (1998). Computer Science Unplugged: Off-line Activities and Games for All Ages. csunplugged.org

Brennan, K., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada. Free PDF

Grover, S., & Pea, R. (2013). Computational thinking in K-12: A review of the state of the field. Educational Researcher, 42(1), 38–43. DOI: 10.3102/0013189X12463051

Kong, S. C., & Abelson, H. (Eds.). (2022). Computational Thinking Education in K-12: Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Physical Computing. MIT Press. Publisher

Yadav, A., & Berthelsen, U. (Eds.). (2021). Computational Thinking in Education: A Pedagogical Perspective. Routledge. Publisher

Research on Physical Computing with Microcontrollers

Hodges, S., Sentance, S., Finney, J., & Ball, T. (2020). Physical computing: A key element of modern computer science education. Computer, 53(4), 20–30. Free PDF

Kalelioglu, F., & Sentance, S. (2020). Teaching with physical computing in school: The case of the micro:bit. Education and Information Technologies, 25, 2577–2603. DOI: 10.1007/s10639-019-10080-8

Przybylla, M., & Romeike, R. (2014). Physical computing and its scope—towards a constructionist computer science curriculum with physical computing. Informatics in Education, 13(2), 241–254. DOI: 10.15388/infedu.2014.14

Sentance, S., Waite, J., Yeomans, L., & MacLeod, E. (2017). Teaching with physical computing devices: The BBC micro:bit initiative. Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education, 87–96. DOI: 10.1145/3137065.3137083

Research on Unplugged Approaches

Bell, T., & Vahrenhold, J. (2018). CS Unplugged—How is it used, and does it work? In Adventures Between Lower Bounds and Higher Altitudes (pp. 497–521). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-98355-4_29

Huang, W., & Looi, C. K. (2023). Fostering computational thinking through unplugged activities: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. International Journal of STEM Education, 10, Article 47. DOI: 10.1186/s40594-023-00434-7

del Olmo-Muñoz, J., Cózar-Gutiérrez, R., & González-Calero, J. A. (2020). Computational thinking through unplugged activities in early years of Primary Education. Computers & Education, 150, 103832. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103832

Research on Educational Robotics

Brackmann, C. P., Román-González, M., Robles, G., Moreno-León, J., Casali, A., & Barone, D. (2017). Development of computational thinking skills through unplugged activities in primary school. Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education, 65–72. DOI: 10.1145/3137065.3137069

Kazakoff, E. R., & Bers, M. U. (2014). Put your robot in, put your robot out: Sequencing through programming robots in early childhood. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 50(4), 553–573. DOI: 10.2190/EC.50.4.f

Seckel, M. J., Salinas, C., Font, V., & Sala-Sebastià, G. (2023). Guidelines to develop computational thinking using the Bee-bot robot from the literature. Education and Information Technologies, 28, 16127–16150. DOI: 10.1007/s10639-023-11843-0

Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2016). Robotics in the early childhood classroom: Learning outcomes from an 8-week robotics curriculum in pre-kindergarten through second grade. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 26(1), 3–20. DOI: 10.1007/s10798-015-9304-5

Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2019). Investigating the use of robotics to increase girls' interest in engineering during early elementary school. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 29(5), 1033–1051. DOI: 10.1007/s10798-018-9483-y

Research on Tangible Interfaces

Horn, M. S., Solovey, E. T., Crouser, R. J., & Jacob, R. J. K. (2009). Comparing the use of tangible and graphical programming languages for informal science education. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 975–984. DOI: 10.1145/1518701.1518851

Liang, M., Li, Y., Weber, T., & Hussmann, H. (2021). Tangible interaction for children's creative learning: A review. Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Creativity & Cognition, 1–14. [DOI: 10.1145/3450741.3465262)

Sapounidis, T., & Demetriadis, S. (2013). Tangible versus graphical user interfaces for robot programming: Exploring cross-age children's preferences. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 17(8), 1775–1786. DOI: 10.1007/s00779-013-0641-7

Research on Assessment and Pedagogy

Lee, I., Martin, F., Denner, J., Coulter, B., Allan, W., Erickson, J., Malyn-Smith, J., & Werner, L. (2011). Computational thinking for youth in practice. ACM Inroads, 2(1), 32–37. DOI: 10.1145/1929887.1929902

Sentance, S., Waite, J., & Kallia, M. (2019). Teaching computer programming with PRIMM: A sociocultural perspective. Computer Science Education, 29(2-3), 136–176. DOI: 10.1080/08993408.2019.1608781

Tang, X., Yin, Y., Lin, Q., Hadad, R., & Zhai, X. (2020). Assessing computational thinking: A systematic review of empirical studies. Computers & Education, 148, 103798. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103798

Rich, P. J., Mason, S. L., & O'Leary, J. (2021). Measuring the effect of continuous professional development on elementary teachers' self-efficacy to teach coding and computational thinking. Computers & Education, 168, 104196. DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104196

Useful Websites and Resources

Official Tool Resources

Educational Robotics and Microcontrollers

Teacher Communities and Professional Development

Maltese Context

Busuttil, L., & Formosa, M. (2020). Teaching Computing without Computers: Unplugged Computing as a Pedagogical Strategy. Informatics in Education, 19(4), 569–587. DOI: 10.15388/infedu.2020.25

Malta Digital Education Resources

Relevant Malta Policy Documents

  • Learning Outcomes Framework (LOF) — Digital Literacy
  • Malta Digital Education Strategy
  • National Literacy Strategy (includes digital literacy components)

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