A Computation Model for Learning Programming and Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Introducing coding in early education improves the logical and computational thinking in kids. However, cognitive skills are not sufficient for a successful life. Understanding and managing the emotions of oneself is another crucial factor in success. The current state of the art teaching methods educates the kids about programming and emotional intelligence independently. In our opinion, it is advantageous to teach kids emotional intelligence, along with the programming concepts. However, the literature lacks the studies that make students emotionally aware while teaching them programming. This research aims to prepare students to be cognitively healthy as well as emotionally intelligent with the hypothesis that a kid's emotional intelligence can be enhanced while teaching them cognitive skills. We proposed a computational model that teaches programming and emotional intelligence side by side to students. The model provides a curriculum and related tools. For evaluations, five hundred students of a public school were involved in different activities to find the effectiveness of the proposed model. These students were divided into five groups (A, B, C, D, and E), each having a mean age of 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 years, respectively. Students performed multiple adaptive scenarios of path-finding that were based on self-awareness, social-awareness, sharing, and empathy emotions. Students provide the programming instructions such as sequencing, conditional statements, and looping to a robot. The children have successfully improved in both fundamental programming constructs and emotional intelligence skills. The research also successfully reduced screen time problem by providing a screen-free student interface.