Behavioral patterns of vocational students in Lego Mindstorm: A literature review

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the adoption of robotics as an instructional delivery. Robotics activities can be applied even at higher education levels, including vocational education. Notwithstanding the vast literature on the adoption of robotics into education context, there seems likely a lack of explanation on how Lego Mindstorm would affect student’s behavioral patterns in vocational education. A systematic literature review was carried out to evaluate the recent development of the topic in the literature. The examination was conducted upon articles related to the topic, especially those contained keyword ‘Lego Mindstorm’, ‘behavioral patterns’, and ‘vocational education’. The search was mainly limited to peer-reviewed publication outlets indexed in Scopus, DOAJ, ERIC, and Science Direct to maintain credibility. It is advocated that every level of education has stimulated different behavioral patterns in the learning process. While previous studies indicated that students’ learning behavior influenced their learning achievement, the present study highlights three areas of interest related to the application of robotics in vocational education. Firstly, students’ interpersonal behavior remains an important skill so it requires the teacher to help them improve it. Secondly, the potential of widely adoption of robotics in education as well as in industries contributes to current students’ proficiency in the robotics area which is expectedly constructive to students’ competitiveness in the job market. Lastly, the use of Lego Mindstorm in learning is proven to be beneficial, especially for students and is advocated to be continuously applied in the basic program for a better learning outcome. Despite the exhaustive examination into literature, the number of articles came up within the keywords was quite limited. Future research needs to be expanded into more comprehensive keywords and within a broader context.