CT talk: Teacher talk as a resource for computational thinking in early childhood programming

Although studies have shown that screen-free robotics activities can support early computational thinking (CT), little is known about how young children's engagement in CT activities relates to the teacher's CT-relevant language (“CT talk”). This study analysed classroom video recordings of robot programming activities from two Hong Kong kindergartens, using a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design that combined inductive thematic and interaction analysis with descriptive quantitative counts to examine CT talk in teacher-child dialogues. Six types of CT talk were identified: task-progression prompts, explicit instruction, invitations to elaboration, invitations to reasoning, repetition and reformulation, and encouragement and praise. Task-progression prompts and explicit instruction were essential to procedural accuracy but offered limited opportunities for co-construction. Invitations to elaboration and reasoning created openings for joint problem-solving, while repetition, reformulation, and encouragement and praise served as supportive moves stabilising children's contributions and maintained engagement. These findings show how forms of teacher talk contribute to early CT learning.