Using Educational Robotics in Chemistry Education: A Systematic Review

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Abstract: Social robotics is an innovative field that merges engineering, technological, and social disciplines with the aim of creating robots capable of engaging with humans in socially relevant ways (Breazeal, 2003; Fong et al., 2003). The growing interest in the application of social robots in education is driven by their ability to facilitate learning, support the development of social and emotional skills, and promote mental health and well-being among learners (Belpaeme et al., 2018; Kennedy et al., 2017). However, integrating social robots into the educational environment requires a thorough understanding of the psychological aspects of human–robot interaction, as well as the organizational factors that determine the success of their implementation (Vernon et al., 2015). In Bulgarian academic research, two main directions have emerged: Ivanova (2022) proposes a design model for educational social robots focusing on emotional expressiveness and cultural recognition; and STEMEDU (2022) demonstrates the positive impact of the BigFoot robot on children with special educational needs (SEN), including increased eye contact and social participation. Nonetheless, there remains an open opportunity to develop a comprehensive organizational model for the sustainable implementation of social robots in the university context. Over the past decade, social robots such as NAO, Pepper, and Furhat have been increasingly introduced in educational settings as teaching assistants, mediators of social skills, and tools for mental health support (Belpaeme et al., 2018; Scassellati et al., 2018). Yet, in higher education, their potential remains underexplored—particularly regarding organizational culture, innovation acceptance, and the psychological factors influencing the perception and effectiveness of such technologies (Van Achte et al., 2023; Kennedy et al., 2017). This study seeks to answer the following core question: What are the conditions and prerequisites for the sustainable and effective integration of social robots in university-level education?

In the context of the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics disciplines in education, subjects tend to use contextualized activities or projects. Educational robotics and computational thinking both have the potential to become subjects in their own right, though not all educational programs yet offer these. Despite the use of technology and programming platforms being widespread, it is not common practice to integrate computational thinking and educational robotics into the official curriculum in secondary education. That is why this paper continues an initial project of integrating computational thinking and educational robotics into a secondary school in Barcelona, Spain. This study presents a project-based learning approach where the main focus is the development of skills related to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics and the acquisition of computational thinking knowledge in the second year of pupils’ studies using a block-based programming environment. The study develops several sessions in the context of project-based learning, with students using the block-programming platform ScratchTM. During these sessions and in small-group workshops, students will expand their knowledge of computational thinking and develop 21st-century skills. We demonstrate the superior improvement of these concepts and skills compared to other educational methodologies.

<p style="text-align: justify;">Robots in education fall into two categories: robots used to teach children about STEM subjects and the more recent application of robots as teachers. The use of robots in education is largely unknown to both researchers and teachers. Developers and educators have questions about essential applications for robots used in education. Educational robots are used to enable students to acquire skills in a range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, which are increasingly important in a world where technology is advancing rapidly. The potential for robotic technology to have a profound impact on society, both economically and socially, is enormous. The way people live and work in the world is largely influenced by technology. In order to make learning more pleasant and easier, the education sector is adopting robot teaching assistants in schools. Robotics can be used in education to help develop new methods and strategies. Robotics makes learning easier and thus introduces students to robotics at a young age. In primary education settings, students can learn how to build and program a robot to perform a range of basic tasks.</p>

Educational robotics has become a widely used technological and pedagogical tool in many K-12 classrooms across the United States. Through well-designed activities, students can manipulate robots and engage in enjoyable and meaningful hands-on learning while constructing knowledge regarding essential grade-appropriate STEM concepts. In particular, the presence of programmable LEGO robots as artifacts in STEM classrooms have significantly enhanced the nature and scope of science inquiry and engineering practices that can be conducted in K-12 classrooms, especially over the last decade. The utility of robotics as a learning tool in STEM classrooms is supported by the theories of constructivism and constructionism. Different approaches to integrating robotics in K-12 settings to support the development of students’ cognitive, collaborative, and language skills have drawn substantial attention from many researchers. Additionally, strategies to develop inclusive educational programs using robotic activities include: 1) developing projects that focus on themes and not just challenges; 2) projects that combine art and engineering; 3) projects that encourage storytelling; and 4) organizing exhibitions rather than competitions. Moreover, to encourage continuing student progress, optimal configuration of robots as “black-and-white-box designs” must be provided to students by educators keeping in mind the practical constraints of implementing robotics activities as a part of regular school curriculum. With the increased used of robotics to support learning in K-12 classrooms and beyond, greater attention must be directed towards the different features of these complex technological artifacts. The physicality of robots has long been considered to aid students in constructing knowledge. This is particularly true for engineering and technology disciplines that inherently entail a physical aspect. However, in addition to utilizing robotics to introduce students to advanced scientific and technical concepts, robots are increasingly used for engaging student interest in varied disciplines through project-based interdisciplinary activities. Through their functional roles as artifacts, educational robots may be conferred attributes such as capability to produce data when conducting an experiment or requiring students to have certain skills in the construction or operation of robot to complete the activity, among others. The learning outcomes of teaching using such complex technological artifacts must be analyzed by adequately considering the role played by the robot in learning process. Due to their materiality, researchers have shown, that artifacts contribute to scaffolding student performance by: 1) building ‘common knowledge’, 2) supporting critical thinking, 3) making ‘new things visible, or familiar things visible in new ways’, 4) problematizing, and 5) serving as an adjunct to talk. In this work, we propose to examine the role played by the LEGO robot as an artifact in scaffolding student learning in six different science and math lessons. We will begin by discussing the six robotics-enhanced lessons jointly created and presented by teachers and students from six schools during an exposition day, held during the academic year as a follow-up to a summer teacher professional development program. Next, we will examine some key ideas related to scaffolding, particularly in the context of technological artifacts. We will then utilize these constructs to examine the manner in which the LEGO robots are used to scaffold student learning in the complex tasks presented to them and discuss their relative tradeoffs. As more K-12 schools continue to invest in robots as educational tools, it is imperative that educational LEGO robots are examined through the lens of their contributions to the support, challenges, and scaffolding they offer for student learning.

“Storytelling and educational robotics: A scoping review (2004–2024)”

Educational robotics is a growing field with “the potential to significantly impact the nature of engineering and science education at all levels, from K-12 to graduate school” (Mataric, 2004, para. 1). It has become one of the most popular activities in K-12 settings in recent years. Educational robotics is a unique learning tool that creates a learning environment that attracts and keeps students interested and motivated with fun, hands-on, learning experiences. Many educators might ask; “What is educational robotics?” and “What does it do, and what is it for?” The purpose of this chapter is to present the foundation of educational robotics – from its background, pedagogical theories relating to educational robotics, learning experiences that educational robotics can provide, to tips for how to do it right. It aims to provide guidance on implementing educational robotics for K-12 educators in their educational settings.

EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS, CHEMISTRY TEACHING AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING: A PROPOSAL FOR THE COURSE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN CIVIL ENGINEERING. Students, generally, are afraid of studying chemistry because they understand that it is a very complex area of knowledge and that it doesn’t has use in daily lives and in intended profession, which is a problem we identified in a Civil Engineering course. With this, we proposed a project in this course, based on educational robotics and educational cooperation, with the intention to form a group of students and a teacher to make a robot involving chemical knowledge in civil construction. The group made a robot, using an Arduino kit and material recycling, to identify electrochemical corrosion in concrete structures. We conducted a case study about the group through the analysis of gestures, products made, and notes in a notebook, from which two cooperative categories emerged: planning and application. From these categories, we identified that the students had their cognitive structures unbalanced by difficult situations, trials, errors, and diverse knowledge. The formation of a new equilibrium condition resulted from individual and social developments in constant interdependence, allowing the joint construction of knowledge, whose complexity increased during the process and culminated in the realization of the robot. All these aspects characterized cooperative learning.

In this chapter, we review recent trends in the philosophy of chemistry and its applications in chemical education. Chemistry has maintained quite a peripheral existence in the philosophy of science for a long time, thus evading focused attention and critical analysis. However, since the 1990s an increasing number of books, journals, conferences and associations focused on philosophy of chemistry highlighting the contributions of chemistry to philosophy of science (Bhushan and Rosenfeld, Of minds and molecules: new philosophical perspectives on chemistry. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000; Hendry, The metaphysics of chemistry. Oxford University Press, 2012; McIntyre and Scerri, Synthese 111(3):211–212, 1997; Scerri and McIntyre, Synthese 111(3):213–232, 1997; Schummer, The philosophy of chemistry: From infancy toward maturity. In: Baird D, Scerri E, McIntyre L (eds) Philosophy of chemistry: synthesis of a new discipline. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 19–39, 2006; Van Brakel, Ambix 57(2):233–234, 2010; Van Brakel, Synthese 111(3):253–282, 1997; Woody, Philosophy of Science 67 (Proceedings):S612–S627, 2000). The uptake of this new domain in the context of chemical education research and practice has been minimal despite some earlier acknowledgment of the potential significance for chemical education (Erduran, Science & Education 10:581–593, 2001; Gilbert et al. Research and development for the future of chemical education. In: Gilbert et al. (eds) Chemical education: towards research-based practice. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 391–408, 2003). The special edition of the Science & Education journal on ‘Philosophy, Chemistry and Education: An Introduction’ (Erduran, Science & Education, 2013) is the first collection where the work on the applications of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education has been collated. This chapter will begin with an overview of some of the key and example debates in philosophy of chemistry. These examples will include themes such as reductionism (e.g. Scerri, Journal of Chemical Education 68(2):122–126, 1991) and supervenience (e.g. Papineau, Arguments for supervenience and physical realization. In: Savellos EE, Yalcin U (eds) supervenience: new essays. Cambridge University Press, 1995) as well as aspects of chemical knowledge such as laws (e.g. Christie and Christie, “Laws” and “theories” in chemistry do not obey the rules. In: Bhushan N, Rosenfeld S (eds) Of minds and molecules. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 34–50, 2000), models (e.g. Woody, Science & Education, 2013) and explanations (e.g. Hendry, The chemical bond: structure, energy and explanation. In: Dorato M, Redei M, Suarez M (eds) EPSA: Philosophical issues in the sciences: launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association. Springer, Berlin, pp 117–127, 2010.). Second, the implications of these themes for chemical education research and practice will be explored. The central argument is that understanding of how chemistry is conceptualised and how chemistry is learned, chemical education research has to be informed by the debates about the epistemology and ontology of chemistry. The discussion will be contextualised in the area of nature of science (NOS) that has been one of the highly studied areas of research in science education (Chang et al. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2010). Contributions of how philosophy of chemistry can contribute to the characterisation of NOS by nuanced perspectives on the nature of chemistry will be discussed. Theoretical perspectives and empirical studies on NOS have tended to focus on domain-general aspects of scientific knowledge with limited understanding of domain-specific ways of thinking. NOS literature can be further developed both theoretically and empirically, thereby contributing more to HPS studies in science education. Third, some applications of philosophy of chemistry in chemical education will be reviewed in more detail. For example, proposed work for secondary chemical education, including the context of the teaching of periodic law through argumentation, will be visited (e.g. Erduran, Foundations of Chemistry 9(3):247–263, 2007). Fourth, the chapter will argue that there is developing potential for reciprocal interplay between philosophy of chemistry and chemical education. While philosophy of chemistry has the potential to influence chemistry education, chemistry education in turn can influences philosophy of chemistry, particularly in relation to empirical foundations of chemical reasoning. The paper will conclude with some recommendations on the future directions of research in chemical education that is informed by philosophy of chemistry.

Natural language processing (NLP) is the art of investigating others’ positive and cooperative communication and rapprochement with others as well as the art of communicating and speaking with others. Furthermore, NLP techniques may substantially enhance most phases of the information-system lifecycle, facilitate access to information for users, and allow for new paradigms in the usage of information-system services. NLP also has an important role in designing the study, presenting two fields converging on one side and overlapping on the other, namely the field of the NAO-robot world and the field of education, technology, and progress. The selected articles classified the study into four categories: special needs, kindergartens, schools, and universities. Our study looked at accurate keyword research. They are artificial intelligence, learning and teaching, education, NAO robot, undergraduate students, and university. In two fields of twelve journals and citations on reliable/high-reputation scientific sites, 82 scientific articles were extracted. From the Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR) website, the study samples included twelve reliable/high-reputation scientific journals for the period from 2014 to 2023 from well-known scientific journals with a high impact factor. This study evaluated the effect of a systematic literature review of NAO educational robots on language programming. It aimed to be a platform and guide for researchers, interested persons, trainees, supervisors, students, and those interested in the fields of NAO robots and education. All studies recognized the superiority and progress of NAO robots in the educational field. They concluded by urging students to publish in highly influential journals with a high scientific impact within the two fields of study by focusing on the study-sample journals.

Computational Thinking is a skill that must be possessed in STEM learning. The abstraction process is at the core of CT. thinking is built on ideas and ideas based on experience. From the literature studies that have been read, many have adopted robotics media in education but researchers have not found the use of robotics media in the field of biology at the high school education level. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted to find out the latest developments regarding the topics in this literature. Therefore, this study highlights 3 points of the application of robotics in high school education to hone students’ abstract thinking skills. First, STEM can facilitate abstract thinking. Second, the role of robotics in education which is proven to increase student motivation. The third is the implementation of STEM learning in high school education. The search was limited to literature data-based publication outlets such as DOAJ, ERIC, Science Direct, and Google Scholar to maintain credibility. While previous research shows that students’ abstract thinking skills tend to be lower when using conventional learning. So that we need an approach such as STEM which is useful for solving a problem by utilizing symbols and is more effective in exploring concepts.

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.

Driven by the wave of artificial intelligence, the educational practice and application of robots have become increasingly common. Despite extensive coverage in the literature on various aspects of educational robots, there are still unexplored avenues, particularly regarding robotic support, robotic personality, and challenges in their applications. This study presented a systematic review of high-quality empirical research on the use of physical robots in educational settings. A total of 92 relevant papers from the Web of Science database were analyzed. Employing the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework, we investigated research questions across seven components, including the learning domain, teaching strategy, robot types, learning results, problems with using robots, robotic support, and robotic personality. The findings revealed that robots are most prevalently employed in language learning applications. When opting for teaching strategies, educators tend to favor those that incorporate physical interaction. Concurrently, humanoid robots emerge as the preferred choice among many. These robots, in human–robot interaction scenarios, often exhibit an agreeable personality. In terms of evaluating learning results, cognitive aspects like thinking, creativity, self-regulation, and inquiry ability are especially emphasized. Such results are frequently influenced by the informational and emotional support provided by robots. Nonetheless, challenges encountered by teachers, learners, and robots in this process are not to be overlooked. The findings of this study contributed to future applications of robotics in education.

Educational robotics integrates aspects from various scientific disciplines, encompassing the entire spectrum of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Its effective application is heavily reliant on educators tasked with implementing it within a school setting. This study aimed to investigate the potential adoption of educational robotics among preschool and primary education teachers. The study involved 191 preschool teachers (62.2%) and 115 primary school teachers (37.8%). Data was gathered using a structured questionnaire, AKAER, demonstrating strong internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of α=.892. Educators, irrespective of their specialization, gender, or scientific background, acknowledge the significance of educational robotics and express eagerness to incorporate it. A substantial percentage of educators expressed discomfort in using educational robotics and related if they had trained or not. Nonetheless, more than 70.0% of the surveyed educators expressed interest in receiving training on educational robotics to proficiently integrate it into their teaching methodologies. To ensure that the new generation of students can reap the benefits of modern teaching tools like educational robotics, closely tied to STEM education and the cultivation of 21<sup>st</sup> century skills, we must not only supply schools with the required materials but prioritize the provision of adequately trained and informed educators.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if and to what extent creativity is linked to educational robots. More specifically, it examines the role that educational robots can play in promoting and enhancing creative thinking and other creative processes, such as computational thinking, through the use of artificial intelligence. To achieve this goal, a literature review is carried out on studies that have been conducted, mainly last five years and are applied practices of using educational robots and STEM learning in various educational settings, showing how they can encourage creativity and problem-solving in students. Search engines – databases – such as Google and Google scholar were used as a research tool. The results of the review showed that the use of educational robots develops skills linked to creativity, such as reflection, collaboration and innovation, and is therefore a useful educational-technological tool in the hands of the modern teacher. Finally, possible directions for future research and educational practices on this topic are suggested.