Robotics and Math: Using Action Research to Study Growth Problems

Abstract

An action research case study was conducted to investigate the effects of incorporating LEGO robotics into a seventh-grade mathematics curriculum focused on the development of proportional reasoning through the lens of Social Constructivist Theory. This research, which was part of a larger study, reports the findings when LEGO EV3 robots were incorporated to help students gain an understanding of proportional reasoning in the domain of growth problems. The qualitative data analysis provides insight into how students develop proportional reasoning skills as they use LEGO robotics to navigate among a series of technological stages during collaborative work inclusive of prescribed tasks, discourse and problem-solving. Overall, the inclusion of robotics was productive for learning; however, future studies should be completed to improve the reliability of the findings and continue to improve the curriculum.

Artificial intelligence in mathematics education: A systematic literature review

“…The data of the themes are collected in order to explore how AI can impact and enhance the performance of mathematics students along their teaching and learning process. As seen in Figure 7, the most studied theme (60%, n=12) was about effectiveness (Casler-Failing, 2018Duzhin & Gustafsson, 2018;Francis & Davis, 2018;Gulz et al, 2020;Lopez-Caudana et al, 2020;Moreno-Esteva et al, 2018;Rico-Bautista, et al, 2019;Sáez-López et al, 2019;Saha et al, 2020;Wu, 2021;Zakaria et al, 2021). Two of the research subjects (10%) were about strategies (Forsström & Afdal, 2019;Harper et al, 2021) and three of the research subjects (15%) were about idea suggestion (Chesani et al, 2017;Salas-Rueda et al, 2020;Song, 2017).…”

“…The AI approach used in mathematics education for the samples studied were through robotics, systems, tools, teachable agent, autonomous agent, and a comprehensive approach. As seen in Figure 3, the majority of AI approach used for the samples studied were through robotics (45%, n=9) (Casler-Failing, 2018Forsström & Afdal., 2019;Francis & Davis, 2018;Harper et al, 2021;Lopez-Caudana et al, 2020;Rico-Bautista et al, 2019;Sáez-López, 2019;Seckel et al, 2021) and followed by systems (15%, n=5) (Moreno-Esteva et al, 2018;Mills, 2021;Rojano & Garcia-Campos, 2017;Saha et al, 2020;Zakaria et al, 2021). There were two researches that practiced teachable agent's (Gulz et al, 2020;Song, 2017) and also two research mathematical tools' (Dunzhin & Gustafsson, 2018;Salas-Rueda et al, 2020) approach of AI in mathematics education.…”

“…Even though our systematic review only included publications published in English, the research was carried out in various cultural contexts throughout the world. It can be shown that the majority of the collected studies (n=3) were carried out in the USA (Casler-Failing, 2018;Harper et al, 2021;Mills, 2021) and Mexico (Lopez-Caudana et al, 2020;Rojano & Garcia-Campos, 2017;Salas-Rueda et al, 2020). There are two articles in each of the following categories: studies conducted Spain (Sáez-López et al, 2019;Seckel et al, 2021) and Canada (Chesani et al, 2017;Francis & Davis, 2018).…”

“…The analysis revealed that most of the studies reviewed (40%, n=8) used quantitative research methods (Duzhin & Gustafsson, 2017;Gulz et al, 2020;Mills, 2021;Moreno-Esteva et al, 2018;Rico-Bautista et al, 2019;Rojano & Garcia-Campos, 2017;Sáez-López et al, 2019;Zakaria et al, 2021). Subsequently (35%, n=7) of the reviewed studies used the qualitative research method approach in the study (Casler-Failing, 2018Francis & Davis, 2018;Forsström & Afdal, 2019;Harper et al, 2021;Song, 2017;Wu, 2021;), while the remaining (25 %, n=5) used the mixed method approach (Caudana et al, 2020;Chesani et al, 2017;Saha et al, 2020;Salas-Rueda et al, 2020;Seckel et al, 2021). However, there are multiple of data collection method has been used in certain reviewed studies.…”

“…Recently, Voskoglou and Salem (2020) summarized the benefits of using AI or machine in teaching and learning. The current finding of studies discussed the use of robotics in learning and teaching mathematics (Casler-Failing, 2018;Harper et al, 2021;Lopez-Caudana et al, 2020). Learning programming and problem-solving (PS) at a young age is very challenging for them.…”