Chapter 6: Coding and Computational Thinking Among Chinese Young Children: A Review of Empirical Studies

This article presents a scoping review of the published studies on coding (or “computer programming”) and computational thinking education for young children in mainland China. A total of 21 eligible publications were included in the final analysis. Results revealed that (a) most studies did not involve a theoretical framework for intervention and data analysis, (b) the effectiveness of coding with a variety of platforms requires further scientific evaluation, and (c) it is in urgent need to train Chinese teachers to achieve intentional teaching for early coding and computational thinking education. Given that China is pursuing its technological and digital transformation of the society, it is essential to provide developmentally and culturally appropriate coding education for young children to enhance their transferable computational thinking and digital literacy.