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Robotics and Programming Concepts in Early Childhood Education: A Conceptual Framework for Designing Educational Scenarios

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Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education

Abstract

This chapter addresses the teaching of programming through robotics in early childhood education. It discusses the integration of education robotics principles and algorithmic and programming concepts in order to conceive, design and evaluate educational scenarios (didactic sequences). It then proposes a conceptual framework for designing educational scenarios that integrate programmable toys as a guide to teaching programming concepts. A descriptive analysis of the implementation of educational scenarios by in-service early childhood teachers in typical classrooms covers methodological issues emerging from this framework. Furthermore, it provides research results to encompass the conception and designing of educational scenarios in early childhood educational contexts concerning robotics.

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Acknowledgements

This research was integrated within the context of the European Fibonacci Project. The authors would like to thank the local coordinator Pr. V. Zogza at the Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, participating schools, teachers and children. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anastasia Misirli .

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Misirli, A., Komis, V. (2014). Robotics and Programming Concepts in Early Childhood Education: A Conceptual Framework for Designing Educational Scenarios. In: Karagiannidis, C., Politis, P., Karasavvidis, I. (eds) Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6501-0_8

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