Applying Robotics in School Education: a Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract. А modern learning environment can be developed by using innovative tools and methods. Benefits of robotics in teaching and learning processes have recently been drawing an increasing attention of researchers. The article aims are to perform а systematic review of the literature on the application of educational robots in schools, in order to identify the experience in the use of robotics in both formal primary, basic, and secondary schools and informal education, e.g. after school activities, summer camps. 16 relevant articles have been selected from the bibliographic databases as part of the systematic literature review. The analysis covers the following components of the articles: research aim, a curriculum taught by using robots, specific teaching methods, other characteristics (sample size, age limits and/or study cycle), and findings. The systematic literature review has shown that robotics has been paving its way as a teaching aid in a more intensive and flexible manner. The systematized findings of the literature review show the need for a further scientific research in this area in Lithuanian schools and may provide educators, practitioners and researchers, working in this area, with valuable guidelines.

The Impact of an Integrated Robotics STEM Course with a Sailboat Topic on High School Students’ Perceptions of Integrative STEM, Interest, and Career Orientation

“…The final task should be challenging and divisible into small tasks, so that students learn gradually and work toward the objectives. As Kubilinskiene, Zilinskiene, Dagiene, and Sinkevièius (2017) pointed out, with a strong correlation between tasks, students can accumulate a sense of achievement from each stage, for example, from the prototype of a boat, fitted with sails, coupled with an automatic driving controller and program control, calculating buoyancy, to self-sailing. The taskoriented teaching strategy stimulates students' STEM thinking, interest, and work tendencies around STEM.…”

The Development of Computational Thinking in Student Teachers through an Intervention with Educational Robotics

“…Recent reviews of the literature on educational robotics in the mandatory stages (eg, Bascou & Menekse, 2016;Benitti, 2012;Kubilinskiene, Zilinskiene, Dagiene, & Sinkevièius, 2017;Mubin, Stevens, Shahid, Al Mahmud, & Dong, 2013;Toh, Causo, Tzuo, Chen, & Yeo, 2016;Xia & Zhong, 2018) highlight its potential for the development of computational thinking and the understanding of concepts and processes related to STEM areas. The use of robots is not only a motivator in the classroom, but for its technological features, allows the design of activities that promote both computational thinking, and skills related to scientific and mathematical skills such as social skills, collaborative and teamwork (Benitti, 2012).…”

Learning Robotics: a Review

“…A standard robotics curriculum for K-16 students was proposed by Carlotta et al [6] where a set of guiding principles for teaching robotics is drawn. These studies demonstrate the broad scope of ER in STEAM areas that can be reinforced with systematic reviews on ER for young children [7], K-12 [8, 9••], college students [10], and others [11][12][13][14]. A technical database for K-12 detailing ER characteristics of robots was also found [15••].…”