Faculty Directory

Marina Bers

Augustus Long Professor of Education

Secondary appointment in the Department of Computer Science

Affiliated 艾可直播at the Schiller Institute for Science and Society

Photo of Marina Bers

Marina Bers

Ph.D.

Contact

Telephone: 617-522-4200

Email: marina.bers@bc.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • M.Ed., 艾可直播 University
  • B.A., University of Buenos Aires

Courses

Tech Tools for Playful Learning
Design, Innovation and Formation
Readings and Research in Formative Education

Expertise

  • Design of Learning Experiences and Technologies
  • Formative and Whole Person Education
  • STEM Teaching and Learning
Curriculum Vitae

Department

DFE Department of Formative Education

Biography

Marina Umaschi Bers is the Augustus Long Professor of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at 艾可直播 College with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer Science and affiliated 艾可直播at the Schiller Institute for Science and Society. She is director of the interdisciplinary听,听which she started in 2001, when she was a professor at Tufts University鈥檚 Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote children鈥檚 positive development as a new literacy of the XXIst century. Prof. Bers has conceived and designed diverse technological tools ranging from robotics to virtual worlds. Her current research focuses on robotics and programming languages that promote new ways of thinking and learning in early childhood alongside with socio-emotional development. For example, she co-developed the free ScratchJr programming language and she developed the KIBO robot kit that can be programmed with wooden blocks without keyboards or screens.

Bers鈥� philosophy and theoretical approach as well as the curriculum and assessment methods she developed can be found in her books 鈥淏eyond Coding: How Children Learn Values through Programming鈥� (MIT Press, 2022); 鈥淐oding as Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom鈥� (Routledge, 2018;2022); 鈥淭he Official ScratchJr Book鈥� (2015; No Starch Press); 鈥淒esigning Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: From Playpen to Playground鈥� (2012, Oxford University Press); and 鈥淏locks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom鈥� (2008; Teacher鈥檚 College Press)

Bers is from Argentina, where she did her undergraduate in Social Communication at Buenos Aires University. In 1994 she came to the US where she received an MA in Educational Media and Technology from 艾可直播 University and an MS and PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory working with Seymour Papert.

Selected Recent Publications

  • Bers, M. U. (2023). El desarrollo de Scratch-Jr: el aprendizaje de programaci贸n en primera infancia como nueva alfabetizaci贸n. Virtualidad, Educaci贸n y Ciencia, 14(26), 43-62.
  • Yang, D., Yang, Z., & Bers, M. U. (2023). The efficacy of a computer science curriculum for early childhood: evidence from a randomized controlled trial in K-2 classrooms. Computer Science Education, 1-21.
  • Ben Ari, A., Levinson, T., Bers, M. U., & Rosenberg-Kima, R. B. (2023).
    Nurturing Computational Thinking in an Israeli Kindergarten with the CALKIBO Robotics Curriculum. American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
  • Blake-West, J. C., & Bers, M. U. (2023). ScratchJr design in practice: Low floor, high ceiling.听International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 37.听https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2023.100601
  • Yang, Z. & Bers, M. (2023). Examining gender difference in the use of scratchjr in a programming curriculum for first graders. Computer Science Education.
  • Bers, M. U., Blake-West , J., Kapoor, M. G., Levinson, T., Relkin, E., Unahalekhaka, A., & Yang, Z. (2023). Coding as another language: Research-based curriculum for early childhood computer science.听Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 64, 394鈥�404.听https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.05.002
  • Relkin, E., Johnson, S. K., & Bers, M. U. (2023). A Normative Analysis of the TechCheck Computational Thinking Assessment.听Educational Technology & Society, 26(2), 118130.听https://doi.org/10.30191/ETS.202304_26(2).0009
  • Kapoor, M. G., Yang, Z., & Bers. M. (2023). Supporting Early Elementary Teachers鈥� Coding Knowledge and Self-Efficacy Through Virtual Professional Development.听Journal of Technology and Teacher Education.
  • Levinson, T., & Bers, M. U. (2022). Student Centered Computational Thinking for Children with Disabilities. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
  • Strawhacker, A., Relkin, E., Bers, M.U. (2022). Designing an Adaptive Assessment for Preschool children鈥檚 Robotics Knowledge. Educational Designer, 4(15). ISSN 1759-1325.
  • Unahalekhaka, A., Bers, M.U. (2022). Evaluating young children鈥檚 creative coding: rubric development and testing for ScratchJr projects. Educ Inf Technol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10873-

Select Books

  • Bers, M. U. (2022) Beyond Coding: How children learn human values through programming, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
  • Bers, M.U (Ed.) (2021) Teaching Computational Thinking and Coding to Young Children, IGI Global
  • Bers, M. U. (2020 second edition; 2018, first edition) Coding as a playground: Computational thinking and programming in early childhood. Routledge.
  • Bers M. U. & Resnick, M (2015) The Official ScratchJr Book: Help your Kids Learn to Code, No Starch Press, CA.
  • Bers, M. U (2012) Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: From Playpen to Playground, Oxford University Press
  • Bers, M. U (2008) Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom, Teacher鈥檚 College Press, Columbia University

Grants

  • NSF DRL (PI Marina Bers, Co-PI Andres Bustamante, Chris Rogers) Collaborative Research: The Smart Playground: Computational Thinking through Robotics in Early Childhood (2023 鈥� 2027)
  • LEGO Foundation (PI Marina Bers) Playful-Engineering Based Learning听
  • US Department of Education (PI Marina Bers) Coding as Another Language: The Development and Implementation of a Computational Thinking Curriculum and Sustainable Professional Development Model in K-2 (2019-2023)听
  • Templeton World Charity Foundation (PI Marina Bers) Beyond STEM: The development of virtues in early childhood education through robotics (2019-2020)听
  • Siegel Family Endowment (PI Marina Bers) The Coding Brain: understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying coding with ScratchJr (2018-2019)听
  • VEX Robotics Foundation (PI Marina Bers) VEX Robotics Program: Gender Differences in Attitudes, Engagement and Performance (2017-2020)听
  • NSF EAGER (PI Marina Bers, Co-Pi Ev Fedorenko) The cognitive and neural mechanisms of computer programming in young children: storytelling or solving puzzles? (2017-2019)听
  • NSF IIS 鈥� Cyber-Human Systems (PI Orit Shaer; co-PI Marina Bers) Making the invisible tangible: Reimagining science education in kindergarten through reality-based interfaces (2016-2020)听
  • Scratch Foundation (PI Marina Bers) ScratchJr: developing educational materials (2013-2019)听
  • Museum of Science 艾可直播 (PI Marina Bers) Unplugged computational thinking curriculum (2017-2022)听
  • Lego Foundation (PI Chris Rogers; Co-Pi Marina Bers, Brian Gravel; Ethan Donnelly) Maker Spaces in Education (2015-2017)
  • PBS (PI Marina Bers) Adapting the ScratchJr interface design for the PBS audience. (2015)听

听

Awards & Fellowships

  • National Academy of Education, Member (2023)听
  • 2022 Fellow, American Educational Research Association (AERA)听
  • Outstanding Faculty Contribution to Graduate Student Studies award at Tufts University 2016
  • 艾可直播 Business Journal 2015 Women to Watch in Science and Technology award听
  • 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
  • 2005 Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, American Educational Research Association (AERA)听
  • Premio Sadosky. C谩mara de Empresas de Software y Servicios Inform谩ticos (CESSI), Argentina.
Back To Top