We conducted an experiment with Chinese schoolchildren being taught symbolic reasoning and solving equations of the form 2y + 3 = 7, using a Hanson Einstein robot together with video instruction. The children were unfamiliar to solving equations like these (baseline 0) and after robot tutoring, they were tested for learning outcomes, while they rated their appreciation of the robot. We found a crossover interaction effect of boys learning more from video and girls more from the robot. The effect was catalytic in that only the combination of factors worked (no main effects). Results are discussed in view of gender-specific technology application.

In the design of educational robots, it appears to be undecided as to whether robots should show social behaviors and look human-like or whether such cues are insignificant for learning. We conducted an experiment with different designs of social robots built from the same materials, which is unique in robotics research. The robots rehearsed multiplication tables with primary school children in Hong Kong, which is a user group not easily or often accessed. The results show that affective bonding tendencies may occur but did not significantly contribute to the learning progress of these children, which was perhaps due to the short interaction period. Nonetheless, 5 min of robot tutoring improved their scores by about 30%, while performance dropped only for a few challenged children. We discuss topics, such as teaching language skills, which may be fostered by human likeness in appearance and behaviors; however, for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related subjects, the social aspects of robots hardly seem to matter.

In the design of educational robots, it seems undecided whether robots should show social behaviors and look human-like or that such cues are indifferent to learning. We conducted an experiment with different designs of social robots, rehearsing the multiplication tables with primary school children in Hong Kong. Results show that affective bonding tendencies may occur but did not significantly contribute to the learning progress of these children, perhaps due to the short interaction period. Nonetheless, 5 minutes of robot tutoring improved their scores with about 30% and only for a few challenged children, performance dropped. We discuss that topics such as teaching language skills may be fostered by human likeness in appearance and behaviors but that for STEM-related subjects, the social aspects of robots hardly matter.

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