Fostering computational thinking through educational robotics: a model for creative computational problem solving

Background: Educational robotics (ER) is increasingly used in classrooms to implement activities aimed at fostering the development of students’ computational thinking (CT) skills. Though previous works have proposed different models and frameworks to describe the underlying concepts of CT, very few have discussed how ER activities should be implemented in classrooms to effectively foster CT skill development. Particularly, there is a lack of of operational frameworks, supporting teachers in the design, implementation, and assessment of ER activities aimed at CT skill development. The current study, therefore, presents a model that allows teachers to identify relevant CT concepts for different phases of ER activities and aims at helping them to appropriately plan instructional interventions. As an experimental validation, the proposed model was used to design and analyze an ER activity aimed at overcoming a problem that is often observed in classrooms: the trial-and-error loop, i.e., an over-investment in programming with respect to other tasks related to problem-solving. Results: Two groups of primary school students participated in an ER activity using the educational robot Thymio. While one group completed the task without any imposed constraints, the other was subjected to an instructional intervention developed based on the proposed model. The results suggest that (i) a non-instructional approach for educational robotics activities (i.e., unlimited access to the programming interface) promotes a trial-and-error behavior; (ii) a scheduled blocking of the programming interface fosters cognitive processes related to problem understanding, idea generation, and solution formulation; (iii) progressively adjusting the blocking of the programming interface can help students in building a well-settled strategy to approach educational robotics problems and may represent an effective way to provide scaffolding.Conclusions: The findings of this study provide initial evidence on the need for specific instructional interventions on ER activities, illustrating how teachers could use the proposed model to design ER activities aimed at CT skill development. However, future work should investigate whether teachers can effectively take advantage of the model for their teaching activities. Moreover, other intervention hypotheses have to be explored and tested inorder to demonstrate a broader validity of the model.

Mediating Computational Thinking Through Educational Robotics In Primary School

Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier

Nowadays, computational thinking (CT) is considered a skill to be taught. While educational robotics (ER) appears promising to foster students' CT, operational CT frameworks and explicit guidance in ER are lacking. This thesis thus proposes to understand how teachers can implement ER learning activities in order to develop students' CT competences, and produced two concrete contributions: 1) the creative and computational problem solving (CCPS) model, an operational ER-CT framework that was developed to design ER-CT learning activities, and more specifically the associated intervention and assessment methods, by rendering the CT strategies of students observable. 2) the design and analysis of two complete ER learning activities to promote the full range of CT competences based on the CCPS model, including the artefacts, assessment, and intervention methods.Both were leveraged in a multi-stage process to investigate how to mediate teaching with ER to foster CT. First, 43 teachers following an ER teacher training program were probed regarding their attitude towards ER, which helped identify two distinct profiles of teachers: "pioneers" and "followers". While the former may implement ER and CT on their own, the latter need resources and guidelines to do so. The analysis highlighted the need for ER activities fostering 21st-century skills. The analysis also showed that as long as teachers can benefit from ER training and take the time to appropriate the robotic artefact (i.e. the first stage of instrumentation), teachers' attitude toward ER is positive. However, to pass the second stage of instrumentation and thus organize the conditions for developing the students' CT competence with the robots, ER must be perceived as usable. For this, teachers report needing material resources and time. Since the acceptability of ER is correlated with its usability, work should focus on improving ER usability to increase its acceptability. The next step thus entailed the design and setup of the two complete ER learning activities, which the CCPS model assessed. The intervention methods targeted the introduction of delays in students' thought process, once by preventing access to the programming interface and once by having a delay between execution and the visualization of the results of said execution. Results showed success in fostering students' CT as they went through all the phases involved in the model. Subsequently, an evaluation of teachers' acceptance of the provided learning activities, intervention and assessment methods was conducted with 334 teachers. Indeed, to orchestrate an ER learning activity for CT, the teachers need time and training to carry out the two instrumentation stages. Results showed that while teachers perceived the utility of the methods and resources provided, it was still unclear how the use of the artefacts (usability) related to students' strategies and thus CT competences. Hence, teachers need more time for the second stage of instrumentation. More work must be done, on more extended training periods, to provide explicit guidelines that would help ensure that all teachers and not just pioneers can employ ER to foster CT competences in their classrooms. More explicit guidelines may thus further enable the CCPS model to be a tool for teachers' instrumentation of CT in ER learning activities in terms of design, intervention and assessment.

EPFL2022

Thymio

Fanny Riedo

Technology is now an important part of our lives. We often see robots cited as the future of education, and reports of their imminent entrance in schools. New projects create buzz in the media and online, but when we look at the actual situation, very few robots are currently used in education, and most of the time, the platform used is the Lego Mindstorms. Why so little diversity? What do robot actually bring to the learning experience? How can we design good educational robots? Hopes are that they bring additional motivation to pupils. Since the use of robots is fun, the learning is supposed to become easier. Robot projects and activities are also expected to foster thinking skills, collaboration, and creative spirit. Finally, there is a need to educate people on technology for two reasons. The first is to break the "black box" image they have of technology, and the second is to encourage them into technical careers. Thanks to the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research Robotics (NCCR Robotics), we could develop some innovative concepts in educational robotics, and implement one such pedagogical tool. We designed a small wheeled robot with many sensors, and LEDs making its internal state apparent to the user. A simple, white look makes it a neutral base for creating one’s own application, for all age and gender groups. Different user interfaces allow to make it accessible to everybody: • Pre-programmed behaviours that demonstrate its different possibilities • A Visual Programming Language (VPL), without text and based on event-action pairs • The Aseba script language (text-based), with a comprehensive development environment to accompany and inform the user The resulting platform, Thymio II, is completely open-source and open-hardware. It was mass-produced and commercialised at a low cost. This gave the opportunity to evaluate the public’s response to it. We could assess that the robot design is well received and appreciated by different age and gender groups. It seems particularly popular with girls. We analysed the expectations of the different age categories and proposed activities that fitted their specific needs. We could also validate that users of Thymio II learn notions of programming, understand essential concepts such as what sensors are, what is the relationship between the robot, the computer, and the programming environment. With the VPL, they could quickly grasp the meaning of events and event-action pairs. We realised that in spite of the interest it generated, the robot was not used much at home or in schools. We think that there is a need for more guidance and that parallels should be drawn with e-learning for the use at home. In schools, we observed that teachers who use robots are pioneers, who invest time and sometimes money into new technologies out of personal interest. The others do not feel strongly against robotics but are probably discouraged by the lack of institutional injunction, appropriate training, budget, and ready-to-use pedagogical materials. At the end of this work, we conclude by giving a set of guidelines, based on our experience, for the design of educational robots. This project demonstrated very promising results and we believe that it can be a first step toward renewing teaching habits.

EPFL2015

Accessible Maker-based Approaches to Educational Robotics in Online Learning

Amaury Robert Dame, Christian Giang, Anthony Guinchard, Aditya Mehrotra, Francesco Mondada

Educational Robotics holds the potential to promote the development of important 21st century skills, such as creativity and problem-solving skills in addition to digital literacy. However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has posed particular obstacles that had to be overcome in order to allow Educational Robotics activities to be conducted in distance learning. In the first place, the obligation to work from home limited the access to required equipment for many students. Secondly, many teachers had to face the novel challenge of creating pedagogically meaningful activities in online learning formats. Aiming to address these challenges, this work explored maker-based approaches as a way to implement Educational Robotics activities in online learning. The devised tools and activities were evaluated in two case studies performed with (i) high school students participating in a mobile robotics summer school and (ii) in-service teachers attending a professional development course on Educational Robotics. The teachers’ and students’ perception of the proposed activities was analyzed using online surveys and video interviews. The findings showed that the combination of the devised tools and activities allowed teachers and students to explore the basics of mobile robotics while helping them develop a maker mindset. The use of ubiquitous construction materials and affordable electronic components promotes accessibility of the approach. The proposed tools and activities may therefore provide an exemplary framework for more general applications of Educational Robotics in online learning that go beyond the context of emergency remote teaching.