Incremental project-based robot programming: Effects on young children’s computational thinking, executive function, and learning behavioral patterns

Robot programming is an age-appropriate means to cultivate children’s computational thinking (CT) and executive function (EF). Project-based learning (PBL) is commonly applied to teach robot programming. PBL involves complex, large-scale projects consisting of multiple sub-projects. Each sub-project introduces new knowledge but offers few opportunities to connect it with previously learned knowledge, thus misaligning with children’s cognitive development. In comparison, incremental PBL (IPBL) is a tailored design of PBL that begins with basic knowledge, with each new sub-project building on all learned knowledge from previous sub-projects and progressively adding new knowledge to achieve complete project learning. Hence, this research integrated IPBL into robot programming to develop an incremental project-based robot programming (I-PBRP) approach, and evaluated its effect on young children’s CT, EF, and learning behavioral patterns. Ninety-five children aged 5-6 engaged in 12-week interventions. They were randomly assigned to the I-PBRP group and the conventional project-based robot programming (C-PBRP) group. Results manifested that the I-PBRP group achieved better performance than the C-PBRP group in CT and in the three components of EF (inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) over time. The progressive behavioral analysis manifested that the I-PBRP approach promoted superior performance in robot programming activities and more positive learning behaviors for children. This research has implications for robot programming teaching approaches for young children’s CT and EF development.