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Abstract：
A plethora of programming platforms purports to teach preschool-aged children computational thinking (CT) and coding skills. However, the empirical evidence to support their effectiveness is still in its early stages. A three-week didactic intervention using ScratchJr was conducted to investigate its effectiveness in fostering CT and rudimentary coding skills in a cohort of preschool children (N = 34, aged 4-6 years). While the initial performance mean of the control group (M = 7.07, SD = 2.58) exhibits a statistically significant elevation t (22.64 = 2.23, p = 0.036) vis-à-vis the experimental group (M = 5.35, SD = 1.58), t (22.64) = 2.23, p = 0.0 the terminal performance means of both groups converge closely. However, meticulous data analysis unveils a statistically notable enhancement among preschool participants exposed to the educational intervention involving ScratchJr. Notably, both instructional modalities appear commensurate in nurturing elementary computational tenets, namely modularity and control structures. The experimental cohort outperforms the control group with statistical significance in comprehending potent ideational constructs encompassing representation, algorithms, and hardware/software interplay. Conversely, the control group performs better in grasping the debugging concept than their experimental counterparts. The outcomes lend substantive credence to the efficacy of the distinct programming milieu offered by ScratchJr, underscoring its effectiveness in cultivating CT and coding proficiencies within the preschool demographic.
摘要：
大量的编程平台旨在教授学龄前儿童计算思维（CT）和编码技能。然而,支持其有效性的经验证据仍处于早期阶段。使用ScratchJr进行了为期三周的教学干预，以研究其在一批学龄前儿童（N=34，年龄4-6岁）中培养CT和基本编码技能的有效性。而对照组（M=7.07，SD=2.58）的初始性能平均值与实验组（M=5.35，SD=1.58）相比具有统计学意义的升高t（22.64=2.23，p=0.036），t(22.64)=2.23,p=0.0两组的终端性能均值接近收敛。然而,细致的数据分析揭示了接受ScratchJr教育干预的学龄前参与者在统计上显着的增强。值得注意的是,这两种教学方式在培育基本的计算原则方面似乎是相称的，即模块化和控制结构。实验队列在理解包含代表性的有效概念结构方面优于对照组，具有统计学意义，算法，和硬件/软件相互作用。相反，对照组在掌握调试概念方面比实验组表现更好。这些结果实质上证明了ScratchJr提供的独特编程环境的有效性，强调其在学龄前人口统计学中培养CT和编码能力的有效性。
