Teachers’ Opinions towards Educational Robotics for Special Needs Students: An Exploratory Italian Study

Abstract

Research reveals that robotics can be a valuable tool for school students with special needs (SNs). However, to our knowledge, empirical studies on teachers’ attitudes towards educational robotics for SNs students have been very limited and, in general, do not account for the great variability in the existent difficulties of school-aged children. Our aim is to fill this research gap. This post-test empirical study assessed Italian pre-service and in-service learning support teachers’ attitudes towards the application of Educational Robotics—ER with their students with SNs at the end of a 12-h training course. The results generally showed that most teachers perceived ER as a powerful tool for children with numerous SNs, particularly for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder—ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder—ASD, and Dyspraxia. Looking at the differences depending on the school level, kindergarten teachers perceived that ER is mostly helpful for ASD, ADHD, Down Syndrome—DS as well as with psychological or emotional distress or the needs of foreign students. For primary school teachers, ER was mostly helpful with ADHD, Dyspraxia and ASD. For both junior secondary school teachers and high school teachers, ER was mostly helpful with ASD, Dyspraxia, and ADHD.

Teachers’ Beliefs About Effective Foreign Language Teaching of Students With Intellectual Disability in a Greek Efl Context

“…This finding is consistent with Alemi and Bahramipour (2019) who have studied the use of robotics during vocabulary instruction of Iranian students with Down Syndrome in an EFL context and they noted that it had a very positive impact. However, the vast majority of the participants (nine out of ten) did not have positive beliefs about robotics, a finding which comes in contrast with Battista et al (2020) who found that teachers had positive beliefs about the use of robotics in teaching students with ID.…”

Attitudes towards the Use of Educational Robotics: Exploring Pre-Service and In-Service Early Childhood Teacher Profiles

“…More specifically, the aim is to ensure a broader focus so that students use the digital technologies and the CT and coding activities as learning opportunities for cognitive growth, creative problem solving, and entrepreneurship [30]. During ER activities, the students need to cooperate with their teammates in everyday tasks, working with everyday hands-on materials such as sensors, batteries, detectors, and lights to complete the activities assigned to them by their teachers [19,31].…”

“…In the present study, the term educational robotics (ER) defines a broad area of knowledge-based approaches requiring students to engage in activities using simple and standard electronic components. Furthermore, ER utilizes students' reasoning skills to program a robot or design and create its part(s) and program it; these approaches have been found to increase interest and motivation for acquiring new skills and school knowledge [31,32]. ER systems intended for use by young children (such as the new generation of Bee-Bot, provide an age-appropriate introduction to robotics by combining movements, light, sound effects, and wireless control via tablets such that it is both attractive to and educational for children [10].…”

“…The mere incorporation of ER in a classroom setting is not the primary goal. The focus should move towards its use as a tool, supporting engaging hands-on activities for kids in developmentally suitable student-centered learning scenarios [31,33]. The proper use of ER can help students learn and implement scientific methodology and acquire a set of 21st century fundamental skills, such as logical thinking, critical thinking, computational thinking, problem solving, collaboration, programming, and coding skills, leading to meaningful technological literacy and improved achievement in math and science [5,14,19,[34][35][36].…”

Educational Robotics for children with neurodevelopmental disorders: A systematic review

“…We are aware of the difficulties that teachers face every day, working with children with ND and we acknowledge the complexities of education systems in different countries (Di Battista et al, 2020). However, on the basis of the review, we are able to provide the following recommendations to those planning to conduct an outcome evaluation study on the use of ER for children with SN in school-based settings:…”