Abstract
In the present study, we investigated teachers’ attitudes toward teaching with education robots and robot-mediated learning processes. We further explored predictors of attitudes, and investigated teachers’ willingness to use robots in diverse learning settings. To do so, we conducted a survey with 59 German school teachers. Our results suggest that teachers held rather negative attitudes toward education robots. Further, our findings indicate a positive association between technology commitment and teachers’ attitudes. Teachers reported a preferable use of robots in domains related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Regarding expectations toward the future use of education robots, teachers mentioned their motivational potential, using robots as information source, or easy handling. Teachers’ concerns, however, were associated with the disruption of teaching processes, additional workload, or the fear that robots might replace interpersonal relationships. Implications of our findings for theory and design of education robots are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
International Federation of Robotics Statistical Department: Service Robot Statistics. http://www.ifr.org/service-robots/statistics/
Davis, F.D.: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. MIS Q. 13, 319–340 (1989)
Davis, F.D.: User acceptance of information technology: system characteristics, user perceptions and behavioral impacts. Int. J. Man Mach. Stud. 38, 475–487 (1993)
Lin, Y.-C., Liu, T.-C., Chang, M., Yeh, S.-P.: Exploring children’s perceptions of the robots. In: Chang, M., Kuo, R., Kinshuk, Chen, G.-D., Hirose, M. (eds.) Learning by Playing. LNCS, vol. 5670, pp. 512–517. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Liu, E.Z.F.: Early adolescents’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics. Br. J. Educ. Technol. 41, E44–E47 (2010)
Reich-Stiebert, N., Eyssel, F.: Learning with educational companion robots? Toward attitudes on education robots, predictors of attitudes, and application potentials for education robots. Int. J. Soc. Robot. 7, 875–888 (2015)
Serholt, S., Barendregt, W.: Students’ attitudes towards ethical dilemmas in the possible future of social robots in education. In: 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 955–960. IEEE Press, Edinburgh (2014)
Shin, N., Kim, S.: Learning about, from, and with robots: students’ perspectives. In: 16th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 1040–1045. IEEE Press, Jeju (2007)
Fridin, M., Belokopytov, M.: Acceptance of socially assistive humanoid robot by preschool and elementary school teachers. Comput. Hum. Behav. 33, 23–31 (2014)
Kim, S.W., Lee, Y.: A survey on elementary school teachers’ attitude toward robot. In: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, pp. 1802–1807. AACE Press, Hawaii (2015)
Lee, E., Lee, Y., Kye, B., Ko, B.: Elementary and middle school teachers, students and parents perception of robot-aided education in Korea. In: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology, pp. 175–183. AACE Press, Vienna (2008)
Serholt, S., Barendregt, W., Leite, I., Hastie, H., Jones, A., Paiva, A., Vasalou, A., Castellano, G.: Teachers’ views on the use of empathic robotic tutors in the classroom. In: 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 955–960. IEEE Press, Edinburgh (2014)
Nomura, T., Kanda, T., Suzuki, T.: Experimental investigation into influence of negative attitudes toward robots on human-robot interaction. AI Soc. 20, 138–150 (2006)
Aldebaran Soft Bank Group: NAO. Solutions for Education & Research. https://www.aldebaran.com/en/solutions/education-research
Nomura, T., Suzuki, T., Kanda, K., Kato, K.: Measurement of anxiety toward robots. In: 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 372–377. IEEE Press, Hatfield (2006)
Baylor, A.L., Ryu, J.: The API (Agent Persona Instrument) for assessing pedagogical agent persona. In: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology, pp. 448–451. AACE Press, Honolulu (2003)
Neyer, F.J., Felber, J., Gebhardt, C.: Entwicklung und Validierung einer Kurzskala zur Erfassung von Technikbereitschaft [Development and Validation of a Short Technology Commitment Scale]. Diagnostica 58, 87–99 (2012)
Teo, T.: Attitudes toward computers: a study of post-secondary students in Singapore. Interact. Learn. Environ. 14, 17–24 (2006)
Acknowledgements
This research has been conducted in the framework of the European Project CODEFROR (FP7 PIRSES-2013-612555) and it was supported by the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology ‘CITEC’ (EXC 277) at Bielefeld University, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Reich-Stiebert, N., Eyssel, F. (2016). Robots in the Classroom: What Teachers Think About Teaching and Learning with Education Robots. In: Agah, A., Cabibihan, JJ., Howard, A., Salichs, M., He, H. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9979. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47437-3_66
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47437-3_66
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47436-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47437-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)