Playful and Meaningful Learning of Programming - What does it Take to Integrate an App-Based Game Promoting Digital Mathematics into Early Childhood Education?

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by hdkawk

Conditions for integrating digital mathematics into early childhood education are examined through an app-based educational game, DigiMat. Using a design-based research approach, a multidisciplinary team iteratively created a multimodal game design with teachers and children. Transformative processes were analyzed using thematic analysis and the Learning Design Sequence model, focusing on critical incidents reported by teachers and observed play. Results show that beyond digital affordances, teachers require explicit curriculum alignment for meaningful, guided play. Findings support collaborative design with educators and children in a didactic context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Design-based research approach and DigiMat

Transformative processes and learning design analysis

Findings and implications for curriculum alignment

Playful and Meaningful Learning of Programming. What does it Take to Integrate an App-Based Game Promoting Digital Mathematics into Early Childhood Education? LINDA BARMAN SUSANNE KJÄLLANDER *Author affiliations can be found in the back matter of this article ABSTRACT This article shows conditions for how an educational digital tool can open doors to an increasingly playful world – and address some of the issues with introducing digital maths in early childhood education. Guided by a design-based research approach, the multimodal design of the educational app-based game DigiMat was iteratively created by a multidisciplinary team and introduced to teachers and children. In this study, we focused on transformative processes to illuminate conditions for meaningful design for learning, based on what teachers reported in interventions. In addition, we considered children’s play with the app-based game, which elucidated the conditions for design in learning. We performed thematic analysis and applied the Learning Design Sequence model to illuminate notions from critical incidents with children and teachers. The findings indicate that, although children re-design and create their purpose whilst playing, beyond digital affordances, teachers needed an explicit alignment with the curriculum to integrate meaningful and guided play with the use of DigiMat. This study indicates that designers and innovators wishing to introduce playful apps into educational practice should consider how learning outcomes and playful activities resonate with educational practice. Based on our findings, we argue that digital educational tools should be designed and implemented collaboratively with teachers and children, in a didactic context where the goals of the curriculum are recognised. COLLECTION: DESIGN, LEARNING AND INNOVATION: FRAMEWORKS AND USES RESEARCH CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Linda Barman KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE [lbarman@kth.se](lbarman@kth.se) KEYWORDS: Early Childhood Education; programming; play; digital; app; multimodal; design for learning; meaningful; preschool; school; designbased research; learning TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Barman, L., & Kjällander, S. (2022) . Playful and Meaningful Learning of Programming. What does it Take to Integrate an AppBased Game Promoting Digital Mathematics into Early Childhood Education?. Designs for Learning, 14(1), 165–178. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.16993/](https://doi.org/10.16993/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.16993/)[dfl.203](dfl.203) INTRODUCTION AND RELATED RESEARCH The fostering of digital competence during education is a concern in many countries. In Sweden, the national strategy emphasises that all children and students, from preschool to higher education, should have the opportunity to develop such competence, arguing that:‘Digital competence is basically a democracy issue’(Ministry of Education and Research, 2017, p. 3) . In response, the early childhood curriculum was revised to foster children’s digital competence (SKOLFS 2018: 50) . One way to achieve this national goal has been to focus on programming. In elementary school, the word‘programming’ was written into the curriculum in 2018 (Swedish National Agency of Education Lgr 11, 2018; 2019) . However, the implementation of activities where children develop digital competence has been far from a smooth process, and recent research shows a profession on shaky ground, where teachers are supposed to educate children to become digitally competent without being so themselves (Kjällander et al., 2021). To further progress in schools, the need to strengthen teachers’ development of digital competence is recognised in research literature (Häkkinen et al., 2017) . The current study considered the demands on teachers to ensure children’s development of digital competence and programming, regardless the teachers’ own formal training or digital literacy (cf. Kjällander et al., 2021; Erstad et al., 2021) . In addition t

FAQs

What learning tool is studied and how was it developed?

The study investigates DigiMat, an app-based educational game. A multidisciplinary team created its multimodal design iteratively through a design-based research approach with teachers and children.

How did the researchers analyze learning and design conditions?

The study used thematic analysis and the Learning Design Sequence model. It focused on critical incidents derived from teachers’ reports and from children’s play with the app-based game.

What key condition enables meaningful and guided play with DigiMat?

Teachers need explicit alignment with the curriculum. The findings suggest that digital affordances alone are not sufficient to integrate meaningful, guided play.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by hdkawk