Identifying Functions and Behaviours of Social Robots for In-Class Learning Activities: Teachers’ Perspective

Abstract

With advances in artificial intelligence, research is increasingly exploring the potential functions that social robots can play in education. As teachers are a critical stakeholder in the use and application of educational technologies, we conducted a study to understand teachers' perspectives on how a social robot could support a variety of learning activities in the classroom. Through interviews, robot puppeteering, and group brainstorming sessions with five elementary and middle school teachers, we take a sociotechnical perspective to conceptualize possible robot functions and behaviours, and the effects they may have on the current way learning activities are designed, planned, and executed. Using activity theory to analyze learning activities as an activity system illustrated a number of tensions that currently exist between the components of the system. Overall, the teachers responded positively to the idea of introducing a social robot as a technological tool for learning activities, envisioning differences in usage for teacher-robot and student-robot interactions. We discuss the fine-grained functions and behaviours envisioned by teachers, and how they address the current tensions -providing suggestions for improving the design of social robots for learning activities.

The dual role of humanoid robots in education: As didactic tools and social actors

“…If the robot has less initial knowledge than the child and acts as a novice, the child can act as a tutor and teach the robot. Since the overall aim here is for the child to learn, the robot learning is subordinate, the principles of learning-byteaching apply (Ceha et al, 2021;Pandey & Gelin, 2017).…”

“…Social robots are primarily used to support the learning of subject-specific concepts or skills development (Benitti, 2012;Ceha et al, 2021) and are mainly used in language, science, or technology education (Mubin et al, 2013;Rosanda & Starcic, 2019). Most often it is about the robot being used to develop the students' theoretical abilities, more rarely about practical ones (Lemaignan et al, 2016).…”

“…The use of robots as an educational tool can have a motivating effect, especially in the beginning (Majgaard, 2015). Hence, social robots are used to achieve effective results such as attitudes to learning and perceived performance capability (Ceha et al, 2021). Moreover, the interaction with social robots seems to help children concentrate (Jamet et al, 2018).…”

“…When social robots are used for teaching and learning, the robot, as well as the student(s), are often assigned a predetermined role in which they are supposed to act. More rarely, is the teacher's role predetermined or even discussed as taking an active part in the role-play, and consequently, the role of the teacher or the teacher's experience of the role-play with a robot in the classroom is lacking in previous research (Ceha et al, 2021).…”

“…It is important to include teachers in the design process of robots as they are the ones who decide both how and when students should use technology. It is the teachers who integrate the robots into teaching and consequently, they have to manage the changes that occur in their teaching practice (Ceha et al, 2021). Therefore, we have involved teachers early in the design phase, and the robot's behavior, as well as the learning activity, are co-designed with students and teachers in an authentic setting for a longer period (Barendregt et al, 2020).…”