The strategies and interactions of young children in LOGO tasks

The present study analysed the strategies and interactions of 60 7-year-old children working on LOGO tasks in gender pairs (girls, boys and boy/ girls). The results revealed that initially there were significant differences on some performance variables, based on gender, in one of the tasks. However, these disappeared when the task was changed to one with a focus on accuracy. By the end of the study differences in performance were found to be associated with the application of higher order strategies for problem-solving. The research investigated the nature of the early differences between the groups by examining the strategies and interactions of the pairs of children. The study highlights the importance of considering both the type of task and performance over a reasonable period of time when describing the nature and extent of young children's learning when problem solving in a novel environment.