Cultivating students’ computational thinking through student–robot interactions in robotics education

Abstract

This research focuses on student–robot interaction in the learning environment of robotics education (RE) and attempts to explore how it cultivates students’ computational thinking (CT). Different from child–robot interactions as investigated in the social robot field, student–robot (S–R) interactions focus mainly on the process of interaction between learners and programmable robot kits in RE settings. At a four-week robotics summer camp in China, mixed-methods research was conducted. Forty primary school students and one dedicated robotics teacher participated in this research, while 32 students and the teacher completed all the lessons and data collection procedures of the summer camp. Results indicated that students’ CT skill increased during the summer camp and that the change in their CT skill was positively correlated to the time spent on S–R interaction. Additionally, how three kinds of S–R interaction—programming-computing, observational investigation, and participatory investigation—cultivated students’ CT were found. Moreover, the hierarchy of three S–R interactions and students’ role-shifting in the hierarchy were discussed. Previous studies rarely discussed S–R interaction; however, this kind of interaction should be explored because it provides more information about students’ natural learning process, which might be meaningful to RE practice.

A Novel Three-Way Decision Model for Improving Computational Thinking Based on Grey Correlation Analysis

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Effects of the Problem-Oriented Learning Model on Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills in a Python Course

“…Educational researchers have been actively seeking innovative methods and ways to incorporate CT into the curriculum and encourage students to participate in CT ( Bower et al, 2017 ). They have attempted to teach and develop the knowledge and skills of CT in different educational situations by various means including programming ( Basu et al, 2017 ; Bati, 2021 ), educational robotics ( Chevalier et al, 2020 ; Qu and Fok, 2021 ), unplugged activities ( Kuo and Hsu, 2020 ; Huang and Looi, 2021 ), games/simulations ( Danial et al, 2021 ; Hooshyar et al, 2021 ), storytelling ( Soleimani et al, 2019 ; Parsazadeh et al, 2020 ), and so forth. These tools become “technical partners in the learning process” ( Jonassen et al, 2012 ), and the rationale for improving CT skills in each of these tools emphasizes various CT components ( Shute et al, 2017 ).…”

Exploring the differences and evolution of college students' computational thinking in programming learning through data analysis

“…Computational thinking (CT) is considered to be a fundamental skill as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic, and is a set of thinking activities that draw on the basic concepts of computer science to solve problems, design systems, and understand human behavior [24]. While CT is associated with numerous hands‐on activities, such as robotics education, that can help develop CT skills [18], it is programming that is more closely related to CT. The close relationship between CT and programming stems from the fact that the essence of programming is writing programs to solve problems, and CT has the same connotation [1].…”