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Article

Developing Talented Children’s Computational Thinking Through Multimodal Literacies in Pop-Up Storybooks: A Case Study in Hong Kong

by
Jenny Wanyi Li
1,
Suzannie K. Y. Leung
1,*,
Melissa Dan Wang
2 and
Mantak Yuen
3
1
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
3
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(12), 1377; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121377 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 10 October 2024 / Revised: 12 December 2024 / Accepted: 13 December 2024 / Published: 16 December 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education)
Browse Figures
Figure 1
<p>The story blurbs in Worksheet A of Child A (aged 6).</p> "> Figure 2
<p>The storyboard drawing in Worksheet B of Child A (aged 6).</p> "> Figure 3
<p>The pop-up storybook of Child A (Aged 6).</p> ">
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Computational thinking (CT) currently has been mainly explored using programming robots and conducted in K12 education. In early childhood education, arts have a significant place in children’s learning, expression and cognitive development. Specifically, creating pop-up storybooks is a child-friendly activity. Our study aimed to explore the combination of CT and art, and to develop talented children’s CT abilities through a multimodal literacies educational approach, which referred to using different skills (i.e., writing, drawing, making, and storytelling) in the art activity. A total of 12 talented children were selected to participate in a pop-up storybook production workshop using a convenience sampling method. We adopted an observation method to capture talented children’s CT behaviors, generating a total of 180 min of activity videos and collecting fieldnotes and the children’s worksheets and artworks for the data analysis. Based on a content analysis, we found that talented children enhanced their CT development in multiple modes and practiced seven CT skills. In conclusion, our study emphasizes the importance of art in children’s education and provides new insights for subsequent research on children’s CT education.

1. Introduction

Computational thinking (CT) was initially proposed by Wing in 2006 [1], but there is still no standardized definition [2]. Many researchers have identified CT as the thinking process related to problem-solving [3,4,5,6,7], which is considered the fourth basic skill after reading, writing, and arithmetic [1]. Bers proposed a child-friendly CT learning framework that involves seven powerful ideas: design process, representation, control structures, debugging, algorithms, modularization, and hardware/software [8]. Similarly to other thinking skills, it is recommended that the individual’s CT abilities should be nurtured in the early childhood stage. In the digital era, CT-related subjects, such as STEAM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) and AI (i.e., artificial intelligence), have spread throughout K–12 education, including kindergarten. To promote the development of CT education, many countries around the world have issued relevant policy documents, including China, Singapore, Japan, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia [9,10,11]. Accordingly, the integration of CT competencies in STEAM education has also been increasingly emphasized and promoted among schools in Hong Kong [12]. In early childhood education, previous studies have demonstrated that the arts are vital to children’s learning and growth [13,14], and various art forms have been applied in children’s education to cultivate their expression, creativity, and thinking skills [15,16]. Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to explore the integration of CT and art and promote talented children’s CT abilities with a multimodal literacies educational approach in Hong Kong.

2. Gifted and Talented Education in Hong Kong

Gifted education in Hong Kong started in the 1990s with a government report pointing out the lack of special education for gifted and talented students. This report suggested that gifted and talented children would excel in one or more aspects of intelligence, specific academic subjects, creative thinking, arts, natural leadership, and psychomotor abilities [17]. It should be noted that gifted children usually refers to children with high intelligence, while talented children refer to those who are excellent in the arts, sports, creativity, and leadership. There are two common methods in Hong Kong for identifying gifted and talented children, including teacher nomination and parent nomination. After nomination, these children are screened by The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) to determine their eligibility to participate in gifted programs, which are run by different universities such as the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and include programs in mathematics, science, and the arts [18,19].
Many countries and regions, including Hong Kong, focus on early childhood as a period for the proactive planning of a better future. These early years are seen as the optimum time to provide quality programs that develop all children’s talents and potential. In responding to Hong Kong’s education reform aiming to provide equal access and develop excellence for all students, Chan claimed that a talent approach had been developed in Hong Kong to capitalize on the experiences of gifted education, extending this to talent development for all students [20]. In addition, art-based programs have a place in early childhood gifted education. It is for this reason that early childhood art programs were initiated in 2017 by the Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education (CAISE) at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education. In this study, we recruited talented children from the art-based programs to participate in our CT activity.

3. CT and Gifted Education

As part of the increasing research on CT in K–12 education, many researchers have started to pay attention to the group of gifted and talented children. During the last five years, research has mainly consisted of case studies and experimental studies exploring gifted students’ CT ability development in STEAM and their programming activities at primary and secondary levels [21,22,23]. For example, an experimental study using a mixed-method approach and involving 50 gifted and talented primary school students in Turkey was conducted to develop instructional design activities for CT ability enhancement. The researchers used the Computational Thinking Scale, interviews, and observation to compare the performances between the experimental group and the control group, showing that instructional design had a positive impact on gifted and talented students’ creative thinking, design thinking, and CT skills development [21]. Moreover, Sen et al. conducted a qualitative study based on the engineering design process, inviting seven 12–13-year-old gifted and talented students to participate in a series of STEM activities using robotics and Lego. The results found that these students performed critical thinking in problem-solving, explaining, and generalizing, and that their CT skills were effectively promoted in this process [22]. Another study demonstrated that CT-related activities provided a rich and supportive learning environment for gifted and talented students [23].
Although researchers in different countries have started to implement CT education among gifted student populations, they have preferred to focus on older students in primary and secondary schools and complex CT activities. There remains a research gap regarding CT and gifted and talented children in kindergarten. Based on the nature of the learning environment for gifted and talented children and the features of children’s cognitive development, arts activities are an effective learning format. Therefore, our study aimed to conduct arts-based educational research (ABER) to facilitate talented children’s CT skills development through a multimodal literacies educational approach, specifically utilizing a pop-up storybook production activity to provide new perspectives on children’s CT education. The following two research questions are addressed:
RQ1: What CT skills do talented children practice in pop-up storybook production?
RQ2: How do talented children develop their CT through pop-up storybook production?

4. The Combination of CT and Art in Early Childhood Education

Regarding the early childhood stage, existing studies have shown that there are diverse ways to enhance children’s CT skills, including plugged-in activities utilizing programming robots or programming software [24,25,26,27] and unplugged activities with Lego, cardboard, and other unplugged materials [28,29,30]. Most of these activities are led by teachers in schools, with a minority taking place at home through parent–child activities [31,32,33].
To date, there are only a few studies on CT and art integration. A systematic review found that the disciplines most combined with CT were science and mathematics, while art was the least prevalent [34]. A common way of combining CT and the arts is through STEAM activities, and because this comprehensive activity encompasses science, math, and the arts, many researchers incidentally incorporate the arts into their CT and STEAM activities, with the artistic element often playing a supporting role in this combination. In Sullivan and Strawhacker’s study, the researchers proposed that adding art to STEM would enhance the quality of the curriculum and enable the teaching of these complex subjects that are more appropriate for children to learn [35]. In their designed activities, children are engaged with the artistic elements of drawing, creating artwork, building blocks, and decorating, and their scientific literacy and CT skills should improve during these hands-on activities. In addition, Sullivan and Bers utilized KIBO robotics in Singapore kindergartens to conduct programming workshops entitled Dance Around the World. All the activity sessions were music-themed, combining robotics with art and culture [36].
Art can also play a leading role in CT activities in addition to its supporting roles. In South Korea, researchers conducted an art-based STEAM education program based on educational robots to actively integrate science, technology, and CT with art, with the aim of developing children’s interest in science and creativity. The researchers emphasized the importance of art in STEAM activities, which, rather than being only a tool for learning science and CT, can play a significant role in enhancing children’s aesthetic sense and creativity [37]. To develop children’s CT skills, Leung et al. conducted an animation art activity with a series of algorithmic design tasks in a Hong Kong kindergarten. They found that during the activity, K1, K2, and K3 children were able to practice CT concepts relating to the design process, representation, control structures, debugging, algorithm design, modularity, and hardware/software, while older children showed more complicated competencies [16]. In this study, we aimed to exploit the importance of art activities in engaging children in art to facilitate the development of CT skills.

5. Children’s Multimodal Literacy in Pop-Up Storybooks

In the 21st century, the new social environment and the abundant digital technologies and resources have had a great impact on individuals’ daily communication and learning [38]. There has been a shift from text-driven literacies in which words are an essential but not the only tool for conveying and expressing ideas; instead, there are now multiple modes of combining art, music, and digital technology [39]. The New London Group proposed that multimodal literacies are related to the communication changes in literacies due to the development of culture and new technologies, emphasizing the multiple ways of meaning making, including textual, visual, audio, spatial, and gestural modalities [40]. Recently, Si et al. considered multimodal literacies to be primarily concerned with textual-based, visual-based, and technology-based literacies [41]. The educational approach of multimodal literacies is now widely accepted and applied in kindergarten and K–12 education. For example, Walsh conducted classroom research through questionnaires and observation, finding that students were very interested in and familiar with some digital technologies, and the integration of traditional text-based literacy with digital literacy in the domains of talking, listening, reading, and writing was effective for student learning [42]. For young children, printed words are not a major tool for learning and self-expression. Since language, cognition, and movement are interrelated in the early childhood years, there are more multimodal types of communication aligned with children’s ages and characters, including verbal words, gestures, music, dance, taste, and touch [43]. As such, the elements of multimodal literacies are applicable to pop-up storybook production activities and children’s learning.
Storybooks are popular in children’s education as a child-friendly learning medium, as the pictures can effectively convey the story content to children before their language and reading skills have developed. Studies have shown that storybooks play an important role in enhancing children’s communication and language (e.g., grammar, phonology, and vocabulary) [44,45,46,47], reading ability development [48,49], and literacy skills [50], and storybooks can have the effect of improving children’s cognitive development [51,52] and thinking skills [53,54]. For example, Munar and her teammates adopted observations, interviews, and documentation methods to explore children’s higher-order thinking skill (HOTS) development. They found that children’s HOTS ability could be improved through the use of picture books due to the interesting stories and imaginative opportunities that picture books provide [54]. Additionally, the social skills [55,56] and behavioral habits of children [57,58] can be developed through storybooks.
Pop-up storybooks first became prevalent in the UK in the field of art, and they have subsequently been used in educational activities. Pop-up storybooks present parts of the content in a three-dimensional format, with items popping up when the book is opened. This format can be extremely interesting and playful, and children can interact with the content of the book. In 2020, a quasi-experimental study reported that children in the experimental group (who were taught by reading aloud with the use of pop-up storybooks) had significantly higher social character development than children in the control group (who were taught by using dialogues rather than stories), emphasizing the effectiveness of pop-up storybooks on children’s learning [59]. Moreover, Leung and Yuen conducted a pop-up storybook production workshop in Hong Kong with eight gifted children aged seven–nine years old, exploring the development of their sense of humor (e.g., visual humor and humor preferences) [60]. In addition, Rusanti et al. found that pop-up storybooks enabled children to express themselves happily, which promoted the development of children’s linguistic intelligence, specifically in the aspects of verbal communication, vocabulary recognition, and content retelling [61].

6. Materials and Methods

6.1. Participants

In this study, there were 12 children (6 boys and 6 girls) aged 6–11 years (M = 8.9 years) participating in the workshop. They were all from local families and studying in Hong Kong primary schools with English as the medium of instruction. They joined a gifted and talented development program organized by a government-subsidized university in Hong Kong. To conduct this study, we sent a cover letter and informed consent form to the parents of the enrolled children two weeks before the commencement date of the workshop. The parents were notified of the study’s purposes and procedures, and we provided assurances regarding the confidentiality, anonymity, and data storage arrangements. They all signed and returned the forms, indicating their agreement. An experienced pop-up storybook production artist was responsible for the teaching, and two researchers (the first two authors of this paper) and two research assistants were involved in assisting, photographing, observing, and writing field notes.

6.2. Research Design

This study adopted an arts-based educational research (ABER) approach so that talented children could practice their CT skills during a summer workshop entitled Your Own Pop-Up Storybook. ABER has been recognized as an educational research method since it was proposed by Eliot Eisner in the early 1990s. Eisner later argued that ABER acknowledges the multiple ways of expressing meaning and that it can be combined with qualitative research methods [62]. McArdle and Wright identified the arts as the first literacies for children [63]. Several researchers have utilized ABER as an effective and appropriate research method in children’s studies [64,65,66,67].
The workshop was three hours in total, involving the following sessions: (1) storybook introduction; (2) pop-up effects demonstration; (3) brainstorming; (4) pop-up storybook preparation and production; and (5) storytelling. At the beginning, an experienced artist introduced the narrative skills involved in storytelling by using a storybook to help children understand a story’s theme, plot, and characters. Then, the techniques involved in making pop-up effects and the different colors, shapes, and textures of the materials that can be used to make a storybook were demonstrated by the artist. After the teaching, the children brainstormed to imagine and design their own stories, writing down the titles, characters, and plots on Worksheet A. Next, based on their story designs, the children drew the covers and six pages on Worksheet B. As a result, the children began to create lively storybooks using different materials by writing, drawing, pasting, and using pop-up techniques. Finally, each child was invited to present their story in detail. Regarding the multimodal literacies educational approach, there were four activities related to textual, visual, audio, and digital literacies: writing story blurbs, drawing story content, making a pop-up storybook, and telling stories. The schedule of the workshop is shown in Table 1.

6.3. Data Collection and Analysis

A total of 180 min of video data were collected throughout the workshop activity. We also collected the two worksheets (one for the story blurbs and one for the story drawings) and the pop-up storybooks from the children, as well as field notes from the researcher’s team. These data were triangulated to increase the accuracy of the data analysis. In this study, texts, symbols, images, and interactions were analyzed using the content analysis method. Content analysis is a research technique that systematically analyses texts or meaningful matter to draw replicable and convincing inferences [68], and it is widely used in early childhood education research. Accordingly, the analysis of teacher–child interaction and children’s artworks and behaviors during the activities were shown in the dialogues, tables, and pictures in the following findings.

7. Findings

7.1. Talented Children’s CT Skills in Pop-Up Storybook Production

During the pop-up storybook making process, we found that the children were able to develop seven CT concepts—algorithms, modularity, control structures, representation, hardware/software, design process, and debugging—which answered RQ1. Producing a pop-up storybook requires children’s storytelling experience, independent thinking ability, hands-on skills, and creativity. First, the children were encouraged to create ideas and design the characters and plots for their own stories. They then went through a process involving discussing, writing, and drawing to shape the story content, as well as making, testing, and refining the final storybook product, which can be referred to as the design process.
To easily make the final product, the teacher suggested that the children decompose the complex task into several manageable parts, involving imagining, writing, drawing, and papercutting, which was guided by modularity. In relation to the concepts of control structures and representation, we noticed that the children considered the use of appropriate materials when designing characters and plots and choosing different colors and shapes for various objects and events. It is worth noting that throughout the design and production process, the children performed all the tasks in their own way step by step, adjusting the products if any errors were observed. At the end, they used MP3s to record their stories and share them with others, all of which covered the CT concepts of algorithms, debugging, and hardware/software. Table 2 shows the details of the CT definitions and the applications in activities.
The following dialogue shows an interaction between Child B and the teacher during the pop-up storybook making process, revealing the child’s CT practices.
Teacher: What kind of a story have you designed?
Child B: The story is about the king living in the castle and a big diamond monster. The king fights the monster with a bow.
Teacher: That’s a great story! And what are you going to do?
Child B: I’m going to draw a monster and cut it out.
Child B [after cutting]: I find my monster’s neck is too unstable and can be snapped easily.
Teacher: Oh yes, so what do we need to do to stabilize it, or are we just being careful with it?
Child B: I think it needs to be secured; can you supply me with double-sided tape? I’d like to stick a piece of cardboard to the back of the neck, so it’s much more stable.
Teacher: What a great idea. Here’s double-sided tape. Try it!
Teacher [After the children’s attempt]: It worked! So now where do you want to put the monster?
Child B: I’m going to put it here in the center, so the monster will stand up when opening the book.
Child B [After trying]: Oops, the monster is bigger than the storybook when it is closed.
Teacher: Well, yes, what should we do?
Child B: I will try a different position to give it a little more space.
[After trying several positions, the monster still exceeds the size of the storybook.]
Child B: I think we might have to make the monster a little smaller for that.
Teacher: So why don’t we try folding the monster’s head and hands a little bit, and then use our hands to help unfold the head and hands when we open the book? Do you think that would be okay?
Child B: You are so smart! I love this idea!

7.2. Talented Children’s CT Practices with Multimodal Literacies

Based on the multimodal literacies educational approach, we designed four different literacy activity formats, providing the children with a playful and engaging multimodal activity environment to promote their CT development. The following four activities demonstrated how the children developed their CT abilities through pop-up storybook production with multimodal literacies, answering RQ2.

7.2.1. Writing Story Blurbs

After learning storytelling narrative skills and understanding a story’s theme, plot, and characters, the children attempted to design and write their story content on Worksheet A. As the children did not master many written words, they used simple Chinese or English words and phrases to express their ideas. In this writing activity, only textual literacy was involved. We could observe that the children wrote the story blurbs by imagining, planning, and developing their stories. In filling out Worksheet A, they broke down their ideas for the whole story into several elements, such as title, characters, time, venue, and plot. In terms of the plots, there were three main plots that had to be written down one by one in sequence. In this way, the children’s CT abilities, in the design process, modularity, and algorithms were developed. Figure 1 shows an example from Child A’s Worksheet A.

7.2.2. Drawing the Story Content

After writing the story blurbs, the children designed, wrote, and drew the story titles, characters, and plots on the covers, back covers, and pages one to six of Worksheet B. This part of the activity included textual and visual literacy, with specific types of written text, drawings, and symbols. Written text was used to show the story title on the cover or the dialogue between the characters in the main part of the story. In this activity, the most important elements were the drawings, which depicted the look of the characters, the number of objects, and the interactions between characters or objects in the plots. Additionally, different geometric shapes were often used as symbols to represent some drawing elements, such as a circle for a head, triangles for teeth, and star shapes to represent explosions. We found that the children in the drawing process took time to think about how to transform textual content into drawings. This meant that they needed to decide how they would create the characters and interaction environment, on which pages they would demonstrate the particular scenarios, and how they would connect the different frames sequentially to keep the stories coherent. This drawing task was helpful for enhancing the children’s CT abilities (i.e., design process, modularity, algorithms, and representation). Figure 2 shows an example from Child A’s Worksheet B.

7.2.3. Making Pop-Up Storybooks

Based on the preparations from the previous writing and drawing activities, the children kept the story content clearly in mind and found it easier to convert 2D drawings into a 3D storybook. Making pop-up storybooks is a comprehensive activity integrating textual and visual literacy formats. As well as written texts, drawings, and symbols, some papercutting was involved. Based on their personal interests, the children chose diverse materials and formats to make and decorate the storybooks. For example, some children wrote the story titles and dialogues directly in the storybooks with a pen, while others attempted to cut various colored paperboards into their favorite shapes to write the titles. In addition, blue rectangles were clouds in some children’s storybooks and waves of the ocean in others. It was somewhat challenging for the children to produce a pop-up storybook, even though they learned some techniques for making pop-up effects. To enable the characters or objects to become 3D (e.g., the standing dinosaur and the open boxes), it was important to consider what pop-up effects were suitable for the characters and where to make the pop-up effects. Moreover, if an error occurred (e.g., an inappropriate angle, size, or position of the cardboard), the pop-up object would not be displayed or would be displayed imperfectly. Therefore, the children experienced a process of independent thinking, hands-on practice, and repeated trial and error, which was also a process of developing the children’s design-process, modularity, algorithm, representation, control structure, and debugging abilities. Below is an example from Child A’s pop-up storybook (Figure 3).

7.2.4. Telling Stories

At the end of the activity, we encouraged the children to tell their stories with MP3 recordings, allowing them to hear their own voices and stories. This process was linked to digital literacy. In addition, when presenting their pop-up storybooks, the children shared their storytelling with their peers and teachers. When telling their stories, they used certain sequential words (first, and then, finally, etc.) to connect the whole story. Each storytelling lasted about one-and-a-half minutes. During this short time, the children practiced storytelling narrative skills and three CT concepts (i.e., design process, algorithms, and hardware/software).
Comparing the above four activities, we found that the children had distinct levels of performance in four literacy formats and practiced different CT concepts. It was notable that the children were good at audio and visual literacy rather than textual literacy. Specifically, the children wrote the story blurbs in a simple way, using a few keywords and phrases to cover the story content. By contrast, the process of drawing and storybook production was much more detailed, especially regarding the emotions and interactions. Moreover, the final oral storytelling involved a comprehensive description of the content and development of the complete stories. The application of multimodal literacies in CT practice is shown in Table 3.

8. Discussion

8.1. The Significance of Multimodal Literacies in Children’s CT Learning

Our findings demonstrated that talented children could develop seven CT skills during activities, supporting existing studies [21,22,23]. In contrast to traditional single-mode teaching, the multimodal literacies educational approach emphasizes a variety of learning materials (e.g., written texts, e-books, and online videos) and a diverse range of pedagogical methods (e.g., the use of digital devices, drawing, and drama activities). On the one hand, this is in keeping with the development of information generation; on the other hand, it improves the effectiveness of teaching and learning [43]. Also, it is well known that storybooks offer lots of benefits for children’s education, and the pop-up storybook format further enriches such activities and raises the complexity of manipulative tasks for talented children [53]. Consistent with the previous studies [38,39], the use of multiple approaches (i.e., writing story blurbs, drawing story content, making pop-up storybooks, and telling stories) to engage the children with one subject content and goal not only stimulated the children’s interest in learning but also promoted literacy development in the process of practicing CT. Moreover, CT is about higher-order thinking and problem-solving abilities, and the multiple modes of repetitive practice allowed the children to better feel and understand the algorithms, modularity, design process, control structures, representation, debugging, and hardware/software associated with CT in the activities, which contributed to the formation of an efficient thinking model.
There have been many previous studies applying multimodal literacies in educational settings, such as language education [42], and our study has provided further evidence of the effectiveness of multimodal literacies in children’s learning. Therefore, based on the age and learning characteristics of children, multimodal literacy is an appropriate and even necessary educational method in early childhood education. It could be greatly promoted and applied in the six learning domains of the kindergarten curriculum in Hong Kong (i.e., language, early childhood mathematics, self and society, nature and living, physical fitness and health, and arts and creativity). Furthermore, these experiences have important implications for education stakeholders around the world.

8.2. Art-Based Activities in Early Childhood Gifted Education

In this storybook production activity, we designed four types of activities based on the multimodal literacies educational approach. These activities had both consistent and specific features as well as various difficulty levels, satisfying the needs of talented students for enrichment and challenge. As talented students may be good at some aspects, they tend to get bored with simple or singular content, so art-based activities full of variety and creativity are a suitable educational approach for them. Moreover, art-based activities usually involve the creation of tangible artworks. These products give children a sense of achievement, which can be an important encouragement for them.
Globally, art is a smaller part of the school curriculum than other major academic subjects, but thanks to the goals of lifelong pursuits and whole-person development, art education is gaining more and more emphasis [13]. Gifted education in Hong Kong is not usually run separately; instead, it is integrated within the regular classroom, although depending on the learning content, additional curricula or workshops may be offered [19]. For teachers, there can be a great deal of flexibility in conducting art-based activities, allowing them to provide tailored instruction and guidance to different talented students so that they can maximize their abilities according to their distinct strengths and needs. For education policymakers in other countries, drawing on the gifted education model in Hong Kong, where arts-based programs are offered under university support, may provide gifted children with appropriate learning environments and facilitate their learning and growth.
Although our study provided new insights into children’s CT education, some limitations existed and could be improved in future research. First, the sample sizes were not big enough to enable more observation data. Second, the lack of interviews, surveys, and children’s assessments limited deeper understanding and exploration of the talented children’s abilities development. Therefore, further research on talented children’s CT education should consider enlarging the sample size and employing a mixed-method approach.

9. Conclusions

In conclusion, the arts are a useful tool for children’s learning and whole-person development. Adopting the multimodal literacies educational approach, this study examined four main activities (writing story blurbs, drawing story content, making pop-up storybooks, and telling stories) involving textual, visual, audio, and digital literacy formats. Our study provided empirical evidence that pop-up storybook production activities can enhance talented children’s CT skills and literacy development. Additionally, it complements the application of the multimodal literacies theory in children’s education and provides practical guidance on the integration of arts and CT education. In the future, arts-based activities should be widely disseminated and used more often in gifted and CT education.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: J.W.L. and S.K.Y.L.; Methodology and analysis: J.W.L., S.K.Y.L. and M.Y.; Writing—Original draft preparation: J.W.L., S.K.Y.L. and M.D.W.; Writing—Review and editing: J.W.L., S.K.Y.L., M.D.W. and M.Y.; Visualization: J.W.L., S.K.Y.L., M.D.W. and M.Y.; Supervision: S.K.Y.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Survey and Behavioral Research Ethics Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong approval date is 21 January 2022 and the approval code is SBRE-21-0448.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

This study’s data cannot be accessed for ethical reasons (i.e. protecting the identity of the participants).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Education 14 01377 g001
Figure 1. The story blurbs in Worksheet A of Child A (aged 6).
Figure 1. The story blurbs in Worksheet A of Child A (aged 6).
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Figure 2. The storyboard drawing in Worksheet B of Child A (aged 6).
Figure 2. The storyboard drawing in Worksheet B of Child A (aged 6).
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Figure 3. The pop-up storybook of Child A (Aged 6).
Figure 3. The pop-up storybook of Child A (Aged 6).
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Table 1. The schedule of the workshop.
Table 1. The schedule of the workshop.
Your Own Pop-Up Storybook Workshop
ActivityContent
Session 1
(20 min)		Storybook Introduction
  • Learning storytelling narrative skills
  • Understanding the story’s theme, plot, and characters
Session 2
(40 min)		Pop-up Effects Demonstration
  • Demonstrating various pop-up effects
  • Learning how to make pop-up effects
Session 3
(15 min)		Brainstorming
  • Designing their own story
  • Discussing with peers and teacher
Session 4
(90 min)		Pop-Up Storybook Preparation and Production
  • Writing story blurbs
  • Drawing story content
  • Making a pop-up storybook
Session 5
(15 min)		Storytelling
  • Story sharing
  • Storytelling with MP3 recordings
Table 2. CT concepts, definitions, and applications in activities.
Table 2. CT concepts, definitions, and applications in activities.
CT Concepts [8]Definitions [8]Applications in activities
AlgorithmsAn algorithm involves a sequential step-by-step procedure to solve a problem or finish a task.
  • Children designed a series of sequential plots.
  • Children followed their own needs in executing the order of production (e.g., drawing a pattern and then cutting the paper or cutting the paper followed by writing, drawing, and gluing).
  • Children followed the steps to make origami animals.
  • Children completed the whole storybook production and storytelling step by step in order.
ModularityModularity involves breaking down complex tasks or procedures into more simple and manageable parts.
  • Children broke down the whole story into several plots.
  • Children decomposed the task of making a storybook into small sections of writing, drawing, cutting, and pasting.
Control structuresControl structures dictate the order of executing instructions in a program.
  • Children considered the selection of appropriate materials (e.g., the colors, shapes, and texture) from numerous materials based on the particular events.
  • Children decided which elements should be in the storybook and which should not.
RepresentationThe information in a programming language is represented by a symbolic system.
  • Children used different colors and shapes to build the designated objects (e.g., using star shapes to represent an explosion).
Hardware/softwareA computer system contains both hardware and software components, which are involved in its operation.
  • Children used cell phones to search for images for drawing references.
  • Children used MP3s to record their stories and play them back for listening.
Design processThe design process contains the steps of asking, imagining, planning, creating, testing, improving, and sharing.
  • The workshop started with a given problem, and children needed to think of their own stories.
  • Children passed through several stages, including imagining, writing, drawing, making, and testing, before the final product emerged.
DebuggingDebugging is the skill of detecting, deleting, and repairing errors.
  • Children made the pop-up effects in the storybook through trial and error.
  • Children corrected spelling errors by blacking out the original word or drawing a pattern to cover it up and rewriting it.
  • Children switched to another color when they found that one color did not show up on the paper.
  • Children modified the size or placement of the cutouts when they exceeded the size of the storybook.
Table 3. The multimodal literacies educational approach in various CT practice activities.
Table 3. The multimodal literacies educational approach in various CT practice activities.
ActivitiesLiteracy FormatSpecific TypesCT Concepts
Writing story blurbsTextualWritten textsDesign process
Modularity
Algorithms
Drawing story contentTextual
Visual		Written texts
Drawings
Symbols		Design process
Modularity
Algorithms
Representation
Making pop-up storybooksTextual
Visual		Written texts
Drawings
Symbols
3D papercutting		Design process
Modularity
Algorithms
Representation
Control structures
Debugging
Telling storiesAudio
Digital		MP3 recordingsDesign process
Algorithms
Hardware/Software
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Li, J.W.; Leung, S.K.Y.; Wang, M.D.; Yuen, M. Developing Talented Children’s Computational Thinking Through Multimodal Literacies in Pop-Up Storybooks: A Case Study in Hong Kong. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 1377. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121377

AMA Style

Li JW, Leung SKY, Wang MD, Yuen M. Developing Talented Children’s Computational Thinking Through Multimodal Literacies in Pop-Up Storybooks: A Case Study in Hong Kong. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(12):1377. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121377

Chicago/Turabian Style

Li, Jenny Wanyi, Suzannie K. Y. Leung, Melissa Dan Wang, and Mantak Yuen. 2024. "Developing Talented Children’s Computational Thinking Through Multimodal Literacies in Pop-Up Storybooks: A Case Study in Hong Kong" Education Sciences 14, no. 12: 1377. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121377

APA Style

Li, J. W., Leung, S. K. Y., Wang, M. D., & Yuen, M. (2024). Developing Talented Children’s Computational Thinking Through Multimodal Literacies in Pop-Up Storybooks: A Case Study in Hong Kong. Education Sciences, 14(12), 1377. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121377

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