Computational Thinking in Childhood Education: Exploring Fundamental Components Through Playful Unplugged Tasks and Storytelling

Global educational ministries stress the importance of teaching coding and robotics because they have profoundly influenced children's mathematical computational thinking and problem-solving skills. In addition, play-based approaches in the Foundation Phase are significant because they develop children's holistic development skills. The Department of Basic Education recently integrated coding and robotics into the Foundation Phase curriculum in South Africa. Consequently, there is a shortage of skilled teachers equipped to meet the curriculum demands in the phase. Thus, this problem threatens technological and national development due to the connection between coding, robotics, and curriculum transformation. Piaget's constructivism theory underpinned this study because it supports play-based approaches and hands-on experience in childhood education. An interpretive case study design within qualitative research explored Foundation Phase teachers' perceptions of integrating play-based approaches in coding and robotics to enhance early mathematics learning within curriculum transformation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit teachers' voices on teaching coding and robotics to develop learners' mathematics skills. Twelve teachers from three primary schools in Limpopo were selected through homogeneous purposive sampling. Thematic data analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that teachers rely on unplugged or non-digital robots to teach mathematics in the Foundation Phase due to a lack of access to technological tools. Their voices highlight the need for additional skills to adapt to this curriculum transformation effectively. This paper introduces a novel contribution to global efforts by exploring innovative ways of using Lego bricks to teach coding and robotics to enhance early mathematics learning in the Foundation Phase.