| NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 8, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 8, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1814007 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Fengfeng Ke
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,172,590.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,172,590.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 GUEST ST BRIGHTON MA US 02135-2016 (617)300-2000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
One Guest Street Boston MA US 02135-2016 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | STEM + Computing (STEM+C) Part |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Building on the current and growing interest in supporting young children (especially those from underserved backgrounds) to think computationally, this project will integrate storytelling and computational thinking. Computational thinking in this setting includes knowledge such as finding patterns and understanding logical sequencing that are essential for disciplines such as mathematics and engineering. The project will conduct an exploratory research process starting with understanding what computational thinking learning opportunities already exist for children and how they can be integrated into existing storytelling and literacy activities. Then the project will examine how preschool children apply computational thinking while developing their narrative skills (storytelling and understanding the structure of stories). The project will also investigate how preschool children and their teachers make meaning of experiences that are designed to foster computational thinking while composing narratives. The project will design and adapt a new learning resource called The Story Emporium and consisting of a touch-screen digital platform that children can use to program their own stories, along with accompanying hands-on activities and teacher scaffolds. Then, the project will investigate what evidence of promise exists for the Story Emporium as a resource to support children's use of computational thinking to solve their own challenges and to develop their narrative competence in storytelling. The project is funded by the STEM+Computing program, which seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within disciplinary STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12).
To conduct the research, a team of education researchers, practitioners, and technology experts will collaborate on a co-design process with preschool teachers, children, and field experts. Experts from the fields of early childhood education, literacy, computational thinking education, and the design of learning environments will collaborate on this project. Modeled on Clements' (2007) Curriculum Research Framework, project activities will begin with developing a model of the project's pedagogical foundation, informed by a forum of experts and a review of literature. Then exploratory research will investigate the opportunities to integrate computational thinking and narrative development by observing educators and preschool children during classroom activities for early literacy instruction. The model of the project's pedagogical foundation will be revised based on findings from the exploratory research. Finally, the project will use multiple design cycles to develop computational literacy learning tasks and conduct formative research on children's computational literacy and teachers' instructional practices while iteratively developing and testing a learning intervention (The Story Emporium). The project will also investigate the promise of the intervention in cultivating preschoolers' computational literacy and narrative competence. The research questions examine what aspects of computational thinking are already present in children's practice with narrative development and language followed by understanding the learning process when children engage with a learning intervention designed to integrate computational thinking and narrative literacy. The learning process will be supported by designing tasks and a digital learning platform. Data to be collected include qualitative data to document student learning, such as video observations, transcript analysis, coding of students' work, and storyboarding tasks for children. Students' knowledge will also be measured using a general literacy measure, computational literacy tasks, a narrative comprehension test, and video observations. Data from teachers will also include classroom observations, interviews, and implementation logs when the educators use the learning intervention.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Development of Computational Literacy through the Integration of Computational Thinking and Early Language and Literacy Development in Urban Preschools project took an exploratory approach to: (a) investigate how preschool children apply computational thinking (CT) while developing their narrative skills (storytelling and understanding the structure of stories); and (b) what evidence of promise exists for a new learning intervention (called The Story Emporium and consisting of hands-on activities, teacher scaffolds, and a touch-screen digital platform that children can use to program their own stories) in supporting computational literacy.
Public media producers from GBH and researchers from EDC began the project with: the development of a Pedagogical Foundations document, which was informed by literature and landscape reviews: a forum that hosted experts in the fields of computation and early literacy; interviews with educators; and an exploratory storyboarding task for preschool children. The team then embarked on an iterative research and development process for The Story Emporium program that consisted of three formative studies. Research activities included: a series of teacher reviews, surveys, and interviews; classroom observations; classroom video analysis; and expert reviews.
Through this process, the team developed a five-step model for integrating CT into early narrative development activities. The five-step model is: 1.) Read a story with a repetitive, predictable pattern, 2.) Break down the story into story elements (character, action, object, consequence) by making a story chart, 3.) Find the story pattern using the chart, 4.) Retell the story using the story pattern, 5.) Create a new story using the story pattern using story charts or through The Story Emporium story-making digital app. The Story Emporium program follows this model. The program consists of 64 activities broken into four units that span across seven weeks and include linguistically and culturally responsive book choices. The accompanying Teacher’s Guide contains the five-step model, a table to help educators understand the connection between storytelling and CT, directions for using the app in the classroom, and teaching strategies to support dual language learners and children with learning and thinking differences.
Since computational thinking assessments among preschoolers are very new territory, with few standardized measures, another component of our project was to create a learning task. Developed by EDC, the task was used to assess the extent to which the intervention supports the development of CL and narrative development. The assessor administers the task by first reading a story with a repetitive, predictable pattern. Midway through, the assessor asks the child to continue the story by using a set of story element “stickers.” Children are prompted to select stickers that signify the character, actions, objects, and consequences in the story. The scoring system captures children’s use of specific components of CL to understand fine-grained differences in CL understanding and describe preschoolers’ ability to apply CT skills in a narrative context.
The research and development of The Story Emporium culminated in a pilot study, conducted with nine teachers and 57 preschoolers across nine geographically diverse classrooms. Seven of the classrooms were in urban areas and two were in suburban areas. All but one classroom was categorized as low income (the remaining classroom was mixed income). Findings from our pilot study suggest evidence of promise for The Story Emporium’s model and intervention in supporting desired teacher and student outcomes. Preschool teachers reported that: they were very positive about the intervention materials; the intervention was valuable and easy to implement; it supported student learning and CT particularly for multilingual learners; and it supported their own understanding and practice around storytelling and CT. Analysis of classroom videos also indicated student learning and showcased several promising instructional practices for teachers. Assessment measures (Joint Story Retell and the aforementioned Computational Literacy Task) demonstrated that the intervention may have also had a positive effect on children’s narrative performance.
Based on the success of this project and its approach to The Story Emporium app, GBH has been working with PBS KIDS to develop a public-facing version of the game on pbskids.org/wombats and support foundational computational thinking ideas to children ages 3-5.
Last Modified: 12/07/2023
Modified by: Jillian Orr
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