Kim receives NSF grant to research scaffolding for block-based programming

Associate professor ChanMin Kim recently received a grant from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program of the National Science Foundation that will support research on scaffolding strategies to help pre-service, early childhood education teachers learn to debug block-based programming.

Kim will work with professor Roger Hill and researchers from Utah State University to generate knowledge about cognitive and motivational gaps pre-service early childhood teachers face when debugging programs written to control robots, and what types of scaffolding can bridge those gaps.

This is important because engaging early grades students with STEM content in an inquiry-oriented manner is challenging. One way in which this can be done is by having students participate with robots in dramatic play and other student-centered approaches to early childhood education. Programming, and, by consequence, debugging, is critical to the ability to control robot movements. It also contributes to the development of problem-solving skills. It is unreasonable to expect early grades students to gain these skills without being helped by a teacher who has the ability and self-efficacy to engage in debugging. Thus, central to integrating computer science education in early childhood is a need to prepare pre-service early childhood teachers. This is no small task, as computer science processes, especially debugging, can be daunting to non-computer science majors.