Educational Robotics Research Articles

The promise and peril of Coding & Robotics education in South Africa: A scoping review of teacher preparation and generative artificial intelligence's potential for delivering equity

Integrating the Coding & Robotics (C&R) subject in South African schools signifies the nation's commitment to Fourth Industrial Revolution preparedness. However, challenges like inadequate teacher preparation and limited technological infrastructure must be addressed to ensure equity. Although Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) may not address the infrastructural deficiencies directly, in this scoping review we examine its potential to complement existing resources and support teachers in delivering C&R instruction. Following Arksey and O'Malley's framework, we conducted a systematic literature search in numerous databases, followed by a screening procedure: 10 of the 61 eligible papers satisfied the inclusion criteria. Our findings reveal that GenAI can optimise C&R teacher development through personalised learning, content generation, feedback on teaching methods, and fostering collaboration with other teachers. Despite its potential, issues including equity, ethical concerns, technological fluency gaps, and overreliance on GenAI tools, must be navigated to enhance equitable C&R instruction and prepare learners for the digital era.

Analysis of Gender Issues in Computational Thinking Approach in Science and Mathematics Learning in Higher Education

In the contemporary era, Computational Thinking has emerged as a crucial skill for individuals to possess in order to thrive in the 21st century. In this context, there is a need to develop a methodology for cultivating these skills within a science and mathematics content education framework, particularly among pre-service teachers. This study aimed to investigate the impact of Educational Robotics on the development of Computational Thinking skills, with a particular focus on the role of gender, through a scientific and mathematical content teaching approach. A pre-experimental design with a quantitative approach was employed, and it was implemented with a total of 116 pre-service teachers, 38 males and 78 females. The results demonstrated a notable enhancement between the pre-test (8.11) and post-test (9.63) scores, emphasising specific concepts such as simple functions, while, and compound conditional. With respect to gender, statistically significant differences were identified prior to the intervention, but not following its implementation. The high level of Computational Thinking exhibited by both genders was comparable (53.85% in females and 55.26% in males) following the intervention. This indicates that the intervention is a promising approach for enhancing Computational Thinking proficiency, independent of gender and initial proficiency levels. The implementation of Educational Robotics in the teaching of science and mathematics enables the enhancement of Computational Thinking abilities among pre-service teachers, while reducing the observed gender disparity in this area of skill development.

KIT EDUCACIONAL COM ARDUINO PARA A CONSTRUÇÃO DE UMA ESTUFA AUTOMATIZADA:

The objective of the study was the development and analysis of an educational kit with Arduino for the construction of an automated greenhouse, based on an intervention with high school students. The choice to build a greenhouse was made to work with Brazilian biomes. The research adopted a qualitative approach with the field of study being a State Technical School, with a sample universe made up of 15 students. The procedures were based on the steps of the Kelly Experience Cycle (CEK). For each stage, we prepare Record Sheets (FR) and at the beginning a Questionnaire for Pre-Action Assessment (QVA). To systematize and analyze the results, a focus group was created. Considering the volume of data obtained, we limited the study to an analysis of the Meeting stage, a phase that played a leading role in the process of building the automated greenhouse. The QVA analysis allowed us to identify students who have already experienced educational robotics. The analysis of FR03 made it possible to investigate the appropriation of programming knowledge developed by students, as well as to evaluate a possible correlation between previous and newly acquired conceptions. Concluding that Educational Robotics kits using Arduino constituted a pedagogically and economically viable proposal, being a simple to use and low-cost educational kit.

An Educational Robotics Approach to Drawing and Studying Central Trochoids at the University Level

An Educational Robotics Approach to Drawing and Studying Central Trochoids at the University Level

I Care That You Don’t Share: Confidentiality in Student-Robot Interactions

Enabled by technological advances, robot teachers have entered educational service frontlines. Scholars and policymakers suggest that during Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), human teachers should remain “in-the-loop” (i.e., oversee interactions between students and robots). Drawing on impression management theory, we challenge this belief to argue that robot teacher confidentiality (i.e., robot teachers not sharing student interactions with the human teacher) lets students make more use of the technology. To examine this effect and provide deeper insights into multiple mechanisms and boundary conditions, we conduct six field, laboratory and online experiments that use virtual and physical robot teachers (Total N = 2,012). We first show that students indeed make more use of a confidential (vs. nonconfidential) robot teacher (both physical and virtual). In a qualitative study (Study 2), we use structural topic modeling to inductively identify relevant mediators and moderators. Studies 3 through 5 provide support for these, showing two key mediators (i.e., social judgment concern and interaction anxiety) and two moderators (i.e., student prevention focus and teacher benevolence) for the effect of robot teacher confidentiality. Collectively, the present research introduces the concept of service robot confidentiality, illustrating why and how not sharing HRI with a third actor critically impacts educational service encounters.

Educational Robotics and Preservice Teachers: STEM Problem-Solving Skills and Self-Efficacy to Teach

Integrating STEM education within the elementary school science curriculum in Ontario, Canada, elevated the expectation for elementary preservice teachers to teach STEM skills such as problem-solving through coding. Research shows that educational robotics can promote STEM knowledge and skills. This mixed methods study investigates the effect of an educational robotics intervention on preservice teachers’ STEM problem-solving skills and their self-efficacy to teach with educational robotics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data sources included a pre- and post­questionnaire on problem-solving, a pre- and post- self-efficacy teaching questionnaire, a problem-solving worksheet, and transcripts of group interactions. Quantitative findings were statistically significant for preservice teachers’ self-efficacy to teach with educational robotics (large effect size) and for problem-solving competencies (small effect size). Using a STEM problem-solving framework, two preservice teacher group interactions were analysed. Qualitative findings indicated that preservice teachers exhibited similar problem-solving processes as STEM experts, but preservice teachers’ prior STEM knowledge limited the types of decisions considered at the problem-solving stages. The study provides an example of how preservice teachers’ self-efficacy to teach with educational robotics was developed within a science education course and lends unique insights into the problem-solving processes these preservice teacher groups engaged in.

Educational robotics for science and mathematics teaching: Analysis of pre-service teachers' perceptions and self-confidence

Educational Robotics has had an important impact in recent years as it offers a number of advantages for students. The inclusion of robotics in any educational stage requires teachers with adequate predisposition and training, making it necessary to know the opinions of pre-service teachers. The aim of our study is to analyze the perceptions and self-confidence of 109 pre-service primary education teachers before and after an intervention based on educational robotics and challenge-based learning to teach scientific and mathematical content, in their third academic year. A quasi-experimental design was used involving pretest and posttest, using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon U tests. The results showed a significant improvement in the overall mean self-confidence. In addition, the intervention led to a more positive perception of the benefits and possibilities of robotics for teaching of scientific and mathematical content, although it also increased the difficulties of implementation due to the lack of training in this digital resource. It is concluded that interventions are required based on educational robotics that allow pre-service teachers to gain the necessary self-confidence and perception to facilitate its introduction for the teaching of scientific and mathematical content.

Leveraging the learning focal point algorithm for emotional intelligence

<span>One of the secrets of the success of the education process is taking into account the learner’s feelings. That is, the teacher must be characterized by high emotional intelligence (EI) to understand the student’s feelings in order to facilitate the indoctrination process for him. Within the framework of the project to create a robot teacher, we had to add this feature because of its importance. In this article, we create a computer application that classifies students' emotions based on deep learning and learning focal point (LFP) algorithm by analyzing facial expressions. That is, the robot will be able to know whether the student is happy, excited, or sad in order to deal with him appropriately.</span>

A multimodal educational robots driven via dynamic attention.

With the development of artificial intelligence and robotics technology, the application of educational robots in teaching is becoming increasingly popular. However, effectively evaluating and optimizing multimodal educational robots remains a challenge. This study introduces Res-ALBEF, a multimodal educational robot framework driven by dynamic attention. Res-ALBEF enhances the ALBEF (Align Before Fuse) method by incorporating residual connections to align visual and textual data more effectively before fusion. In addition, the model integrates a VGG19-based convolutional network for image feature extraction and utilizes a dynamic attention mechanism to dynamically focus on relevant parts of multimodal inputs. Our model was trained using a diverse dataset consisting of 50,000 multimodal educational instances, covering a variety of subjects and instructional content. The evaluation on an independent validation set of 10,000 samples demonstrated significant performance improvements: the model achieved an overall accuracy of 97.38% in educational content recognition. These results highlight the model's ability to improve alignment and fusion of multimodal information, making it a robust solution for multimodal educational robots.

Arduino-Based Mobile Robotics for Fostering Computational Thinking Development: An Empirical Study with Elementary School Students Using Problem-Based Learning Across Europe

The present article explores the impact of educational robotics on fostering computational thinking and problem-solving skills in elementary school students through a problem-based learning approach. This study involved the creation of a framework which includes a robot and two eBooks designed for students and teachers. The eBooks serve as a guide to the construction and programming of a small Arduino-based robot. Through integration with gamification elements, the model features a narrative with three characters to boost a student’s engagement and motivation. Through iteration of heuristic evaluations and practical tests, we refined the initial theoretical framework. An empirical study was conducted in two phases involving 350 students. The first empirical test involved a small group of 21 students, similar to end users, from five European schools. With a 100% completion rate for the tasks, 73.47% of these tasks were solved optimally. Later, we conducted a larger validation study which involved 329 students in a Portuguese school. This second phase of the study was conducted during the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 school years with three study groups. The results led to a 91.13% success rate in problem-solving activities, and 56.99% of those students achieved optimal solutions. Advanced statistical techniques, including ANOVA, were applied to account for group differences and ensure the robustness of the findings. This study demonstrates that the proposed model which integrates educational robotics with problem-based learning effectively promotes computational thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for the 21st century. These findings support the inclusion of robotics into primary school curricula and provide a validated framework for educators.

Field Trial of a Queue-Managing Security Guard Robot

We developed a security guard robot that is specifically designed to manage queues of people and conducted a field trial at an actual public event to assess its effectiveness. However, the acceptance of robot instructions or admonishments poses challenges in real-world applications. Our primary objective was to achieve an effective and socially acceptable queue-management solution. To accomplish this, we took inspiration from human security guards whose role has already been well received in society. Our robot, whose design embodied the image of a professional security guard, focused on three key aspects: duties, professional behavior, and appearance. To ensure its competence, we interviewed professional security guards to deepen our understanding of the responsibilities associated with queue management. Based on their insights, we incorporated features of ushering, admonishing, announcing, and question answering into the robot’s functionality. We also prioritized the modeling of professional ushering behavior. During a 10-day field trial at a children’s amusement event, we interviewed both the visitors who interacted with the robot and the event staff. The results revealed that visitors generally complied with its ushering and admonishments, indicating a positive reception. Both visitors and event staff expressed an overall favorable impression of the robot and its queue-management services. These findings suggest that our proposed security guard robot shows great promise as a solution for effective crowd handling in public spaces.

Estrategias de Enseñanza STEM: Un Análisis de Métodos Activos en el Aula

The research analyzes active teaching strategies in STEM education, focusing on methodologies such as gamification, project-based learning (PBL), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), educational robotics, and the flipped classroom model. These methodologies have shown to improve academic performance, knowledge retention, and the development of critical skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. Despite the benefits, implementation faces significant challenges, including resistance from both teachers and students. The research highlights that combining traditional and active methods can help overcome these challenges, creating more dynamic and equitable learning environments. It also suggests that the success of these strategies largely depends on teacher training, willingness, and institutional support. In conclusion, active strategies are essential to better prepare students for the technological and scientific challenges of the future.

Improving Diabetes Education and Metabolic Control in Children Using Social Robots: A Randomized Trial

Robot engagement in healthcare has the potential to alleviate medical personnel workload while improving efficiency in managing various health conditions. This study evaluates the impact of robot-assisted education on knowledge acquisition and metabolic control in children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) compared to traditional education methods. A randomized controlled trial was conducted at the pediatric diabetes clinic of the University of Tabuk Medical Center, Saudi Arabia. Thirty children aged 5–15 years with T1DM were randomly divided into two groups: the robot education (intervention) group and the control education group. Both groups participated in six weekly one-hour educational sessions, with the intervention group interacting with a Pepper robot assistant and the control group receiving education from a qualified diabetes educator nurse. Knowledge was assessed using a 12-item questionnaire before and after the intervention, while metabolic control was evaluated through weekly mean home blood glucose measurements and HbA1c levels before and three months post intervention. The intervention group demonstrated a significantly greater improvement in knowledge scores compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Weekly mean blood glucose levels were consistently lower in the intervention group throughout the study period (p < 0.05 for all samples). Both groups showed a reduction in HbA1c levels after three months, with the intervention group exhibiting a greater mean decrease. The engagement of the Pepper robot in T1DM education for children resulted in improved knowledge acquisition and better metabolic control compared to traditional education methods. This approach may establish a foundation for “learning by interacting with robots” in long-term diabetes management. Further research with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods is warranted to confirm these findings and explore the long-term benefits of robot-assisted education in pediatric diabetes care.

Supporting Educators to Co-Design Interdisciplinary Projects Integrating Educational Robotics and Arts

The growing call to foster interdisciplinary learning has found educators struggling to co-design learning across disciplinary boundaries. Aiming to contribute to the area of interdisciplinary learning design, we explored how to support educators in co-designing interdisciplinary projects integrating Educational Robotics (ER) and Arts, hereafter called Artful ER projects. Our research included developing the "FERTILE" Learning Design methodology as a conceptual tool scaffolding the integration of discipline-oriented viewpoints while educators co-design. Acknowledging that one of the challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration derives from educators’ different intentions for students’ learning outcomes, the "FERTILE" methodology introduces Computational Thinking (CT) skills as an Artful ER project’s primary learning outcome. In this line, the “FERTILE” methodology adapts the Creative Computational problem-solving model, which has been reported to cultivate CT skills through its staged process. Furthermore, we developed the "FERTILE" Community Platform as an online environment providing two-fold support to educators as designers of interdisciplinary learning. The "FERTILE" Community Platform incorporates community functionalities that address collaboration practicalities while educators co-design. Additionally, it integrates authoring functionalities scaffolding educators in designing Artful ER projects based on the "FERTILE" Learning Design methodology. This paper explores how the authoring functionalities of the "FERTILE" Community Platform support educators in designing interdisciplinary learning. We report on a pilot study conducted with Greek and Spanish educators. In this study, we applied a mixed-method research design with a quantitative strand adopting indicators from the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) model and a qualitative strand providing insights into participants’ perceptions. The findings indicate that scaffolding disciplinary elaboration (e.g., robot technical requirements and art forms) and systematising interdisciplinary context (e.g., through project categories) may trigger educators’ mutual understanding. The participants endorsed authoring functionalities that adopted high contextualisation levels for learning design representation to communicate their design ideas across disciplinary boundaries. Also, the participants valued CT skills as the primary outcome of interdisciplinary learning, indicating that CT skills’ cultivation may be the broker among disciplines and trigger educators to overcome disciplinary barriers. Finally, we discuss the findings and implications for refining the "FERTILE" Community Platform as an online environment for educators co-designing Artful ER projects.

The importance of coding and translation between programming languages in sequential activities of pre-service teachers: an approach

AbstractIn the last two decades, computational thinking has gained wide relevance in international educational systems. The inclusion of this new type of thinking poses educational challenges with some underlying research questions that need to be answered to meet these challenges with quality. Thus, this study focuses on analyzing the difficulties that teachers in initial training experience have, when carrying out translation tasks of programming languages used by certain educational robots, in this case, the Cubetto. For this purpose, a specific learning sequence has been designed to work with different programming languages (Cubetto, Bee-Bot, Scratch) and natural language. The work of early childhood and elementary trainee teachers in these tasks has been analyzed using a descriptive approach. The main results are: (1) some of the difficulties encountered are clearly caused by the Cubetto hardware (regardless of the language to which it is translated) and (2) the designed learning sequence has enabled coding skills to be improved remarkably. We conclude that translation tasks between programming languages are necessary in initial teacher training to improve their ability programming and their computational thinking, and for them to be able to detect the disadvantages and benefits of educational robots in their transposition to the classroom.

Can dynamic grouping improve students’ collaborative ability and learning performance in robotics education?

ABSTRACT While pair learning (PL) is considered a potential method in STEM education including robotics education (RE), the question of how to pair students for superior learning effects remains. Current grouping strategies for PL in RE are constrained by fixed grouping (FG) and short of attention to dynamic grouping (DG). Therefore, this study aims to introduce DG into RE, as well as exploring its effects on PL for college and primary students. To this end, a two-stage study was conducted. A pre-post-test design was performed in the pilot study. Based on the pilot study, the authors refined the research design and conducted a comparison experiment (DG vs. FG) for primary school students. Results indicated that: (a) there was no significant difference in collaborative ability between DG and FG, but DG outperformed FG in enhancing students’ contribution; (b) there was no significant difference between DG and FG in students’ learning performance.

A Visualized Exploration of Educational Robotics Over Five Decades

With the swift development of information technologies, educational robotics has been widely used in education, generally leading to improved educational outcomes. While educational robotics has gained popularity and achieved success in education, few researchers have conducted bibliographic analyses in this field. This study complements this missing link by visualizing the top ten authors, organizations, countries, keywords, authors, and sources via VOSviewer. The clustering techniques in CitNetExplorer were used to cluster the publications, where citation networks and qualitative analyses were developed to discuss the topics including the learning outcomes, social and interactive skills, working memory, and higher-order skills in the educational robotics-based context. This study concludes that effective educational robotics can exert a positive influence on the learning outcomes and robotics can improve the development of proximal zones in human brains, conducive to the learning outcomes. Future researchers may focus their attention on robotic competitions, affective features, and evaluative and analytical frameworks to improve educational robotics-based educational effectiveness.

Exploring the frontiers: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of robotics in science education

The present bibliometric review focuses on the 50 research articles indexed in Scopus Database in robotics science education (RSE) between the years 2012 and 2024. The analysis of publications shows the steady growth rates which is especially notable for 2021 thereby specifying the growing demand in the field. These are researchers from universities named The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, The Kaunas University of Technology, and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The funding bodies that have greatly supported research work include National Science Foundation, CAS-TWAS Scholarships, and EPF Lausanne. The current study emphasizes that the topic of robotics in the learning process involves tendencies of the social sciences, engineering, computer science, psychology and other sciences. The United States leads in publication output, followed by countries like Greece, Turkey, and Lithuania, highlighting a global interest in leveraging robotics for educational innovation geographically. The location of the research studies points to the fact that, there is a need to reach out to various countries as a way of encouraging the use of robotics in the STEM curriculum. The following analysis offers insights into the current trends, risks, and opportunities of robotic innovations in education study and underlined the need for a continuous stakeholders’ discourse on the best use of robots in enhancing science learning. This bibliometric analysis emphasizes the dynamic growth, disciplinary integration, and international collaboration characterizing RSE, underscoring the importance of ongoing dialogue and cooperation to realize its transformative potential in STEM education.

Assessing the need for robotic surgery training in standard medical education: insights from medical students

ObjectiveRobotic surgical approaches are increasingly utilized; however, standard medical school curricula omit this topic. This study examines the need for robotic-specific surgical education from the medical students' perspective.DesignA 10-question web-based survey was designed to assess factors including class year, intended specialty, exposure to robotic surgery, and perceived necessity for robotic surgery education. The survey was validated by small group of surgical residents.SettingThis study was conducted at a busy tertiary academic center.ParticipantsSurvey was distributed to 425 post-core clerkship medical students.ResultsOut of 79 respondents (18.5% response rate), 71% had some exposure to robotic surgery. The majority (72%) of respondents, regardless of their intended specialty, agreed on the necessity to learn about robotic surgery. Respondents identified terminology, proper patient counseling, and bedside assisting skills as potential topics to incorporate in robotic surgery medical school curricula.ConclusionsMedical students irrespective of their intended specialty favor robotic surgery specific education. These findings underscore the need to incorporate robotics education into core medical school curricula.

Laboratory work in physics "The study of uniformly accelerated motion without initial velocity" using a robotic kit LEGO MINDSTORMS EDUCATION EV3

The article presents an example of using a robotic kit at physics and informatics lessons — a laboratory work "The study of uniformly accelerated motion without initial velocity" using the LEGO MINDSTORMS EDUCATION EV3 kit. This work is intended for students in 9–10th grades when studying uniformly accelerated motion in a physics course. During the laboratory work, it is necessary to: assemble an experimental setup and create a program for the EV3 control module, which should record the time of movement of a ball along an inclined chute with output to the EV3 module screen; enter the obtained measurement results into a calculation table compiled in an electronic spreadsheet, into which formulas for automatic calculation of acceleration and instantaneous velocity of the ball are preliminarily entered. The laboratory work can be carried out both in a physics and an informatics lessons, and in an optional lesson, you can also conduct an integrated physics and informatics lesson. The use of robotic modeling introduces students to the modern process of conducting physical research (experiments), helps to increase students' interest in experimental work, develop their skills in using robots in research and motivation for engineering and technical creativity.