Adopting Coding in Early Childhood Education: Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

The recent push to introduce coding in early childhood education has been the subject of heated debate. A lack of theoretical and empirical research devoted to understanding coding education acceptance provided the motivation for this article. As a way to engage in the debate, this article investigated kindergarten teachers' acceptance of coding education by drawing on the theory of planned behavior framework, with self-efficacy, pedagogical beliefs, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, student readiness, teacher readiness, and parent readiness serving as external factors. The data were obtained from 236 in-service and preservice teachers in South Korea. Partial least square was employed to evaluate the research hypotheses. We find that self-efficacy and pedagogical beliefs exert a positive effect on perceived behavioral control. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are pertinent for forming positive attitudes. Teacher readiness and parent readiness matter for generating positive subjective norm. Perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norm all have a positive effect on behavioral intentions. The positive indirect effect of perceived usefulness on behavioral intentions through attitude is also noteworthy. In this article, we provide exploratory results as to how teachers believe and perceive coding in early childhood education. Practical insights are provided based on these initial findings.