Robotics as a Powerful Vehicle Toward Learning and Computational Thinking in Secondary Education of 21st Century

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the design and implementation of robotics activities in authentic classroom conditions in secondary education. It suggests that robotics can provide a powerful educational vehicle for guiding high school students toward learning in 21st century. It presents a constructionist approach to foster computational thinking and creativity by engaging in robotics and programming activities in real-world classroom. More specifically, this chapter presents teaching interventions that have been implemented in real conditions to high school students during robotics courses at Arsakeia Schools Psychikou in Athens, Greece. It describes robotics activities employing the Edison educational robotics system. Main features of teaching interventions concerning the utilization of Edison robot, digital learning environments, and unplugged activities in the classroom focused on 21st century skills, computational thinking, and creativity development as well as findings, solutions, recommendations, and future research directions are discussed.

Preservice teachers’ science learning and self-efficacy to teach with robotics-based activities: Investigating a scaffolded and a self-guided approach

“…These approaches are characterized by experiential learning and student centeredness with real-world problems or case-based scenarios acting as both the focus of and stimulus for learning (National Research Council, 2014). Robotics is a learning tool that lends itself to experiential and student-centered approaches because it is a concrete manipulative that children interact with and explore while solving real-world problems and constructing knowledge (Eguchi, 2021;Glezou, 2021). Moreover, with technology and engineering often underrepresented in schools (Bybee, 2010), robotics is viewed as a strategy to engage K-12 students in the components of STEM and develop their 21 century competencies such as problem solving and creativity (Taylor, 2016).…”