Abstract
Research reveals that robotics can be a valuable tool for school students with special needs (SNs). However, to our knowledge, empirical studies on teachers’ attitudes towards educational robotics for SNs students have been very limited and, in general, do not account for the great variability in the existent difficulties of school-aged children. Our aim is to fill this research gap. This post-test empirical study assessed Italian pre-service and in-service learning support teachers’ attitudes towards the application of Educational Robotics—ER with their students with SNs at the end of a 12-h training course. The results generally showed that most teachers perceived ER as a powerful tool for children with numerous SNs, particularly for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder—ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder—ASD, and Dyspraxia. Looking at the differences depending on the school level, kindergarten teachers perceived that ER is mostly helpful for ASD, ADHD, Down Syndrome—DS as well as with psychological or emotional distress or the needs of foreign students. For primary school teachers, ER was mostly helpful with ADHD, Dyspraxia and ASD. For both junior secondary school teachers and high school teachers, ER was mostly helpful with ASD, Dyspraxia, and ADHD.
Highlights
There is common agreement that robots and robotics activities can be a valuable tool in teaching and learning
Looking at the differences depending on the school level, kindergarten teachers perceived that Educational Robotics (ER) is mostly helpful for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Down Syndrome—Down syndrome (DS) as well as with psychological or emotional distress or the needs of foreign students
We found that pre-service and in-service learning support teachers expressed a positive attitude towards ER for special needs (SNs) students, in line with previous Italian studies [6]
Summary
There is common agreement that robots and robotics activities can be a valuable tool in teaching and learning. Chambers et al [5] reported that, though robotic sessions helped develop students’ understanding of gear motion and function, the majority of students still failed to provide an accurate explanation of the concept of mechanical advantage. Those results encouraged the researchers to reflect on the role of metacognition and the importance of taking it into account for the evaluation of problem-solving [6]. The current ER robots and tools available in the market are very simple with a low technological access threshold They do not require advanced technical skills or computer science knowledge. The present study aims to expand the line of research into the application of ER with SNs students by investigating Italian pre-service and in-service learning support teachers’ attitudes towards the application of ER to different types of student needs
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