In his 1964 study, Bloom states that “50% of children’s mental development takes place until the age of 4, 30% from age 4 to 8, and 20% from age 8 to 17”. Can you imagine how quickly children evolve intellectually? Considering most babies start to talk at 12-18 months and say their first words starting from the 9th month, in the early childhood period, their consciousness is strong enough to process many words that visit their ears and create meaning from what they acquired.
It is now known to everyone that the early childhood period, when children are so open to learning, is a critical period. Educators also make great efforts to support children’s mental, kinesthetic, language, social and emotional development and self-care skills, and to provide children with basic concepts in every field that will improve their thinking skills.
Algorithmic thinking skills are one of the skills that ECE has been interested in recently, especially along with coding education which has become a shining star over the last few years and the Pandemic process that has compelled distance education and technology skills in learning settings for a couple of years.
How about teaching children algorithmic thinking skills through distance education? The questions spring to mind about whether they can accommodate themselves to spending time before the computer screen for a long time or interact with their teachers through teleconference tools. We need to find answers to those questions. And EARLY, dedicated to inquiring about the answers to those questions, has been conducting a survey with teachers, aide teachers and parents in 6 countries in Europe.
We will share the results of the surveys very soon.
