Across-the-ages: A study of robotics in Caribbean education

An overview of teacher training programs in educational robotics: characteristics, best practices and recommendations

“…To be more precise, a lesson plan may be assigned as a follow-up activity after a training session (Nagchaudhuri and Mitra 2007) or the participants may be asked to create their own lesson plans and then discuss and/or present them in class (Kim et al ; Kim et al 2015). Participants may also be asked to create a pedagogical project to be applied in the classroom (Castro et al 2018), design their own robotics instructional materials for use in their future classes (Bers et al 2013), design worksheets that combine robotics and other subjects on the curriculum (Gilkes et al 2014) or develop multi-disciplinary didactic units and present them in class (Agatolio et al 2017). The training presented by Negrini (2019) moves a step further by suggesting that a database of robotics materials could be created and a community could be built to allow trainees to stay in contact after the training program has ended.…”

“…In the research studies we selected, the educational backgrounds of the participants differ substantially. In some studies, for example, the participants are ICT teachers/teacher candidates (von Wangenheim et al 2017;Major et al 2014;Major et al 2011), while in others they are teachers of STEM subjects (Goodale 2013;Hodges et al 2016;Kay and Moss 2012;Nagchaudhuri and Mitra 2007) or from a variety of subject areas (Gilkes et al 2014;Hamner et al 2016;Leonard et al 2017;Riedo et al 2012;Scaradozzi et al 2019). The participants' prior experience with programming also varies from study to study.…”

“…In Chambers and Carbonaro (2003), a teaching assistant supported the participants with challenges or problems, while in Kay and Moss (2012), five Computer Science undergraduate assistants supported the participants during the lectures and hands-on periods. The assistants' role in this training is important since they make learning easier for participants and lessen their frustration with kits/equipment during a fast-paced training session (Gilkes et al 2014). To portray the profiles of teacher trainers and their teams better, more information is needed about their background, expertise and role in the training program.…”

“…However, they do not state explicitly which learning theory their teacher training program is based on. Finally, several studies in our sample were clearly not based on any pedagogical approach or theory (Caballero-González and Muñoz-Repiso 2017; Hamner et al 2016;Kay and Moss 2012;Major et al 2011;Riedo et al 2012;Gilkes et al 2014;Nagchaudhuri and Mitra 2007), since none of the sections in those articles refers to learning theories or pedagogical approaches.…”

“…Researchers recommend that teachers should, on the one hand, put their technical knowledge into practice through hands-on work involving assembly and programming (Kim et al 2015) and concrete exercises in using robots and software themselves (Agatolio et al 2017). On the other hand, they should also have the opportunity to use the new teaching resources and materials by implementing ER activities into their classrooms (Hynes and Dos Santos 2007) or participating in outreach robotics activities (Gilkes et al 2014). With regard to technical practice, ER training activities should be of graded difficulty, beginning with simple exercises and with the level of difficulty gradually increasing (Negrini 2019).…”