Description:
Seymour Papert’s vision for early childhood education involves using Logo, a child-friendly computer language. He envisioned a discovery, or self-directed, method of teaching and learning. This article describes three observational studies conducted in classrooms that were attempting to implement Papert’s vision. Data from 9 kindergartners and 5 Head Start children are reported that show what children were doing and with whom they were interacting when they used Logo throughout the school year. All children spent the bulk of their time constructing. No gender differences were found among the kindergartners in behavior, although social configuration differences among the kindergarten boys and girls were found. Head Start children showed more variation in behavior and social configuration than the kindergartners. Developmental, classroom, and racial differences between the Head Start and kindergarten studies are discussed.