Peer-reviewed article
Adopting Coding in Early Childhood Education: Teachers’ Perspectives
Yeolib Kim, Hye In Jeong ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined South Korean kindergarten teachers' willingness to adopt coding education in early childhood settings. Researchers surveyed 236 in-service and preservice teachers using a theory of planned behavior framework to understand what factors influence teachers' acceptance of coding. The study found that teachers' confidence in their own abilities, their teaching beliefs, and their perception that coding is useful and easy to use all positively influenced their intention to teach coding. Teacher and parent readiness also mattered for building social support.
Key points
- Self-efficacy and pedagogical beliefs positively influenced teachers' perceived control over teaching coding
- Perceived ease of use and usefulness of coding were important for forming positive attitudes toward teaching it
- Teacher readiness and parent readiness generated positive social norms supporting coding adoption
- Perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norms all positively affected teachers' intention to teach coding
- Perceived usefulness had an indirect positive effect on behavioral intentions through attitude formation
Limitations
This study examines teachers' stated intentions and beliefs about coding adoption, not actual classroom implementation or impact on children's learning outcomes. The findings are specific to South Korean kindergarten teachers and may not generalize to other contexts or age groups.
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.