Evaluating the Role of Collaboration Scripts as Group Guiding Tools in Activities of Educational Robotics: Conclusions from Three Case Studies

Abstract

Although educational robotics (ER) is considered an innovative and engaging technology for teaching and learning, certain studies emphasize the lack of a coherent and well elaborated pedagogical framework for its implementation. This work contributes toward the development of such a framework by presenting evidence from three case studies implementing ER activities in the school context. The objective has been to explore the impact of various collaboration scripts when used as tools to guide students' groupwork during the ER activity. ER activities have been conducted in three secondary education schools (one lower and two higher) employing the TAPPS, Jigsaw and "Send a problem" collaboration techniques and assigning specific roles to students. Key results (based on observation, students' questionnaire and interviews) include the following: (a) combining the Jigsaw and "Send a problem" scripts had the greatest impact on increasing students' interest and active participation; (b) students' subjective impression of improved learning was generated by structured collaboration, (c) students reported improved understanding of programming structures already known from other contexts, (d) the motive "help my group learn based on my expertise" was rated higher by students. Overall, this study presents and discusses field evidence that contribute to an improved pedagogical framework of in-school ER activities.

Scaffolding for Optimal Challenge in K–12 Problem-Based Learning

“…However, students in K-12 do not naturally know how to collaborate effectively. CSCL in K-12 often incorporates collaboration scripts, which guide students in such important tasks as distributing tasks, balancing group member perspectives, responding to groupmates' articulations, and synthesizing results (Atmatzidou & Demetriadis, 2012;Erkens, Bodemer, & Hoppe, 2016;Kollar, Fischer, & Hesse, 2006). In addition, CSCL has not yet fully considered the different patterns of behavior seen in active and passive students (Kwon, Liu, & Johnson, 2014).…”

Educational Robotics for Promoting 21st Century Skills

“…It also indicates that the skills developed through educational robotics are thinking skills (observation, estimation and manipulation), science process skills/ problem-solving approaches, and social interaction/ teamwork skills. Several studies have also shown that educational robotics provides effective learning opportunities for students in both content areas such as physics, biology, geography, mathematics, science, electronics, and mechanical engineering, and also critical academic skills, such as writing, reading, research, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, and communication skills [6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

On Teaching Programming Fundamentals and Computational Thinking with Educational Robotics: A Didactic Experience with Pre-Service Teachers

“…Educational robotics activities can draw from the core principles of Piaget's constructivism, Papert's constructionism, Vygostsky's collaborative learning, and Bruner's discovery learning. Many studies indicate that educational activities have a positive effect on the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and meta-cognitive skills [24], as well as on the learning of core programming contents [25].…”