Beyond Coding: How Children Learn Human Values through Programming

by Marina Umaschi Bers

Why children should be taught coding not as a technical skill but as a new literacy—a way to express themselves and engage with the world.


Today, schools are introducing STEM education and robotics to children in ever-lower grades. In Beyond Coding , Marina Umaschi Bers lays out a pedagogical roadmap for teaching code that encompasses the cultivation of character along with technical knowledge and skills. Presenting code as a universal language, she shows how children discover new ways of thinking, relating, and behaving through creative coding activities. Today’s children will undoubtedly have the technical knowledge to change the world. But cultivating strength of character, socioeconomic maturity, and a moral compass alongside that knowledge, says Bers, is crucial.

Bers, a leading proponent of teaching computational thinking and coding as early as preschool and kindergarten, presents examples of children and teachers using the Scratch Jr. and Kibo robotics platforms to make explicit some of the positive values implicit in the process of learning computer science. If we are to do right by our children, our approach to coding must incorporate the elements of a moral the use of narrative to explore identity and values, the development of logical thinking to think critically and solve technical and ethical problems, and experiences in the community to enable personal relationships. Through learning the language of programming, says Bers, it is possible for diverse cultural and religious groups to find points of connection, put assumptions and stereotypes behind them, and work together toward a common goal.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Technology

232 pages, Paperback

Published March 22, 2022

About the author

Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers is a professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, with a secondary appointment in the Computer Science Department. She heads the interdisciplinary DevTech research group. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote young children’s positive development. She also developed and serves as director of the graduate professional development certificate on Early Childhood Technology at Tufts University.

Dr Bers co-developed the free ScratchJr programming language, and created the KIBO robotic kit.To make KIBO widely available, she co-founded a start-up, KinderLab Robotics, Inc . As of 2020, KIBO can be found in over 61 countries. Furthermore, Singapore and Argentina have launched national programs including it. Dr Bers is the author of six books on the topic of children, new technologies and education, and many peer-reviewed journal articles. She is a pioneer in the field of early childhood technology with projects of national and international visibility and she has received multiple awards for her work, including the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She currently serves as content director for the upcoming Wombats! animated show produced by WGBH Boston to air through PBS.

Since the late 90’s, when she did her doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab with Seymour Papert, Dr. Bers has conceived and designed diverse technological tools ranging from robotics to virtual worlds. Her early projects focused on helping teenagers explore issues of identity and values in complex, multicultural societies and her current work focuses on early childhood settings.

Reviews

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not an educator, so I'm not the target audience for this book. Nor have I ever tried coding. But reading about introducing coding in early childhood education certainly helped demystify it for me. I enjoyed reading about simple programming languages aimed at small children (and which perhaps I could handle, I thought hopefully!), and I liked the author's main points. She aims to take coding education out of the realm of technocratic education aimed at ensuring today's five year olds become tomorrow's engineers and drivers of the economy. Instead, her focus is on:

- coding as a playground (instead of a playpen): showing how in coding children can engage in meaningful play that impacts their development, and allows for choices and creativity instead of just learning to carry out instructions

- coding as another language: I liked this one. She explains that seeing coding as only STEM or problem-solving is limiting, whereas thinking of it as another language allows for seeing it as a tool for thinking and expression.

- coding as a palette of virtues: she explores how teachers can facilitate children's moral development during coding activities. I liked some of the concrete examples of children's social interaction during activities, as well as descriptions of projects they used coding for.

- coding as a bridge: she explores how programming can be used to create human interactions and meaning, with the example of a number of schools that worked on and shared projects together that enabled cultural exchange.

Enlightening for this non-teacher, non-programmer.

[V 🐈‍⬛]

had to read for class. the normalization of israel is wild and totally unnecessary. some interesting points raised but like majority of children are simply not going to have access to this technology in their schools. also using "she" to talk about a potential student in third person rather than "they". it's giving pinkwashing girlboss feminism

[Asya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a reiteration of her past book, Coding as a Playground. Personally I would just read that one and stop there. This book does not present much new information/ideas.

[Dennis Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly personal and professional view of the potential for “coding” to teach children behaviors and virtues.

Coding as an academic subject entered school curriculum portrayed as an urgent skill for living in the 21st Century and holding significant employment prospects in information technology fields. But the growth in labor is mostly around service industries and the advent AI makes projections in technology workforce needs uncertain. Perhaps in the years to come there are fewer jobs in this field, then why have coding in the schools?

The author suggests that coding can be disconnected from beliefs about preparing STEM workers for future jobs and may be taught as a new kind of literacy, a creative activity and as a means to cultivating values: fairness, generosity, honesty, curiosity, perserverance, and open-mindedness. Author promotes “Coding as Another Language” which can teach important civic virtues.

I appreciate the idealism and optimism of the book.

[Jerrid Kruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the values piece, as the author admitted, is not unique to teaching coding, the main points for teaching values alongside coding are well explained complete with elementary-based examples. The four powerful ideas (coding as playground, coding as another language, coding as a palette of virtues, coding as a bridge) may be useful for conceptualizing any teaching.

I’m general, a nice summary argument for constructionism and a good reminder for how technology education can be leveraged to support whole child development.