Designing for Computational Collaboration
Using a Storyboard Educational Design to Scaffold Collaborative Coding for Childhood Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21240/constr/2025/37.XKeywords:
collaboration, coding, early childhood, multimodalityAbstract
The current paper examines the multimodal and collaborative nature of young children’s educational interactions. The paper draws from a design-based project on 3-5-year-old children’s programming and hones in on the multimodal details of children’s collaborative practices. We investigate video-recorded naturally occurring interactions during small group activities during which children learn programming while playing a storyboard-based game, using two analytical techniques to examine how coding sequences are solved. First, we examine how coding problems are solved within the whole dataset. Following this quantitative analysis of interactional conduct, we use multimodal conversation analysis to examine how collaborative coding unfolds in the intricate details of interaction, including gaze, gestures, and temporal aspects. Findings show how the storyboard fosters both individual scaffolds and collaborative solutions. The multimodal analysis unveils how collaborative coding by children consists of overlapping turns of interaction where children jointly solve sequencing problems using a range of embodied resources. The findings show how constructionism designs can foster collaborative, interactive solutions for young children’s situated coding activities.References
Bakker, A. 2018. Design research in education: a practical guide for early career researchers. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203701010
Bers, M. U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E. R., & Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum. Computers & Education, 72, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.020
Church, A. and A. Bateman (2022). Talking with children : a handbook of interaction in early childhood education. Cambridge ; New York, NY, Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108979764
Cukurova, M. (2024). The interplay of learning, analytics and artificial intelligence in education: A vision for hybrid intelligence. British Journal of Educational Technology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13514 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13514
Dicks, B., Soyinka, B., & Coffey, A. (2006). Multimodal ethnography. Qualitative Research, 6(1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794106058876 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794106058876
Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Collaborative learning: Cognitive and computational approaches. Pergamon.
Goodwin, C. (2018). Co-Operative Action. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139016735
Koschmann, T., Stahl, G., & Zemel, A. (2004). The Video Analyst’s Manifesto (or The Implications of Garfinkel’s Policies for the Development of a Program of Video Analytic Research within the Learning Sciences). In Kafai, Y. B., Sandoval, W. A., Enyedy, N., Nixon, A. S., & Herrera, F. (Eds.), International Conference of the Learning Sciences 2004: Embracing Diversity in the Learning Sciences (pp. 278-285). Santa Monica, CA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Macrides, E., Miliou, O., & Angeli, C. (2022). Programming in early childhood education: A systematic review. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 32, 100396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100396 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100396
Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of sociolinguistics 20(3): 336-366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.1_12177
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic books.
Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong kindergarten: cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers, and play. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11017.001.0001
Samuelsson, R., Price, S., & Jewitt, C. (2022). How pedagogical relations in early years settings are reconfigured by interactive touchscreens. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(1), 58–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13152 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13152
Samuelsson, R. (2023). A shape of play to come: Exploring children’s play and imaginaries with robots and AI. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 5, 100173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100173 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100173
Samuelsson, R. (2024a). Learning beyond instructionist/constructionist divides: A mixed methods exploration of three learning designs for 1-2-year-old children. Computers & Education, 218, 105089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105089 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105089
Samuelsson, R. (2024b). Computational transformations of early childhood education: Pathways toward child-centred computing in two educational change projects. British Journal of Educational Technology, bjet.13536. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13536 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13536
Saxena, A., Lo, C. K., Hew, K. F., & Wong, G. K. W. (2020). Designing Unplugged and Plugged Activities to Cultivate Computational Thinking: An Exploratory Study in Early Childhood Education. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 29(1), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00478-w DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00478-w
Sert, O. (2017). Creating opportunities for L2 learning in a prediction activity. System, 70, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.08.008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.08.008
Shute, V. J., Sun, C., & Asbell-Clarke, J. (2017). Demystifying computational thinking. Educational Research Review, 22, 142–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.09.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.09.003
Stahl, G. (2006). Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/3372.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/3372.001.0001
Streeck, J., Goodwin, C., & LeBaron, C. D. (2011). Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World. Cambridge University Press.
Su, J., & Yang, W. (2023). A systematic review of integrating computational thinking in early childhood education. Computers and Education Open, 4, 100122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2023.100122 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2023.100122
Tang, K.-S., Murcia, K., Brown, J., Cross, E., Mennell, S., Seitz, J., Phillips, S. R. P., & Sabatino, D. (2024). Exploring the multimodal affordances of digital coding devices in fostering creative thinking in early childhood education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 53, 101602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101602 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101602
Tissenbaum, M., Weintrop, D., Holbert, N., & Clegg, T. (2021). The case for alternative endpoints in computing education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(3), 1164–1177. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13072 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13072
Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming human: A theory of ontogeny (pp. x, 379). Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674988651 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674988651
Waring, H. Z. (2009). Moving out of IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback): A Single Case Analysis. Language Learning, 59(4), 796–824. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00526.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00526.x
Yang, W., Ng, D. T. K., & Su, J. (2023). The impact of story-inspired programming on preschool children’s computational thinking: A multi-group experiment. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 47, 101218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101218 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101218
Downloads
Published
Conference Proceedings Volume
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Robin Samuelsson, Olcay Sert, Helena Tegler

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.