Robotics in early childhood STEM education (REC-STEMEd): The impact on preservice teachers’ attitudes and intentions toward computational thinking

Abstract

There is a large disconnect between the increasing need for computer science education in K-12 schools and the preservice teacher training provided. Consequently, preservice teachers may graduate feeling unprepared to infuse computer science concepts such as computational thinking (CT) into their teaching. To address this, we created Robotics in Early Childhood STEM Education (REC-STEMEd), a module that infuses computational thinking, robotics, and science content into an early childhood teacher education methods course. This study investigated changes in early childhood preservice teachers’ (n = 39) attitudes toward learning to teach CT and their intentions to teach CT. Findings revealed a statistically significant increase in participants’ positive affection and positive cognition, and a significant decrease in negative cognition toward learning to teach CT. A moderate but not significant decrease was found in their negative cognition. Moreover, participants reported moderately positive attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions toward teaching CT in the future.