In the artificial intelligence age, cultivating young children's computational thinking (CT) has sparked tremendous attention. Programmable robotics is a developmental-appropriate and screen-free means that provides young children with great opportunities to learn programming and develop CT. However, it is reported that young children might have difficulties learning abstract CT concepts. As a helpful pedagogical facilitator, metaphors can help turn abstract concepts into more concrete and clear concepts that learners are familiar with. Therefore, this research proposed a metaphor-based robot programming (MRP) approach and explored its impact on young children's CT and behavioral patterns. A total of 118 children aged 5–6 were recruited in this experiment with two conditions: the experimental group adopted the metaphor-based robot programming (MRP) approach while the control group used the conventional robot programming (CRP) approach. Results revealed that children who adopted the MRP approach outperformed children who adopted the CRP approach on CT. In addition, behavioral analysis indicated that the proposed MRP approach could facilitate children's superior learning performance and more positive learning behaviors, so as to help them achieve learning objectives. Accordingly, this study can provide insightful guidance and inspiration for future research on effective programming teaching and CT development for young children.

中文翻译：

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一种基于隐喻的机器人编程方法，促进幼儿的计算思维和积极的学习行为

在人工智能时代，培养幼儿的计算思维（CT）引发了巨大的关注。可编程机器人是一种适合发展的、无屏幕的手段，为幼儿提供了学习编程和发展CT的绝佳机会。然而，据报道，幼儿可能难以学习抽象的 CT 概念。作为一种有用的教学促进者，隐喻可以帮助将抽象概念转化为学习者熟悉的更具体、更清晰的概念。因此，本研究提出了一种基于隐喻的机器人编程（MRP）方法，并探讨其对幼儿CT和行为模式的影响。本实验共招募了 118 名 5-6 岁儿童，实验条件有两种：实验组采用基于隐喻的机器人编程（MRP）方法，对照组采用传统机器人编程（CRP）方法。结果显示，采用 MRP 方法的儿童在 CT 上的表现优于采用 CRP 方法的儿童。此外，行为分析表明，所提出的MRP方法可以促进儿童优异的学习表现和更积极的学习行为，从而帮助他们实现学习目标。因此，本研究可为今后有效的幼儿编程教学和CT发展的研究提供富有洞察力的指导和启发。