An Educational Robotics Course: Examination of Educational Potentials and Pre-service Teachers’ Experiences

Abstract

Educational robotics is a very important instrument because it provides an active learning environment and allows learners to acquire 21st century skills. Teachers need to use this instrument in teaching the science of robotics as well as in helping students master the subject and gain experience. This study aims to reveal pre-service teachers’ perceptions and experiences in an educational robotics course. Specifically, the satisfaction, motivation, enjoyment, collaboration, and challenge (SMECC) levels of participants were investigated in this robotics learning process. In addition, pre-service teachers’ engagements were revealed. The participants were 30 pre-service teachers. A post activity survey, observation, and interview were used as data collection tools. This study adopted a mixed method approach by using triangulation data collection (post activity surveys, observations, and interviews). The pre-service teachers showed a high level of satisfaction, motivation, enjoyment, and collaboration and also showed no difficulty doing the robotics activities in general. Moreover, strong relationships were found among satisfaction, motivation, and enjoyment. The findings indicated that the ER activities provided an edutainment learning environment and that pre-service teachers were highly engaged in the robotics activities. The most motivating factor for the pre-service teachers was teaching what they had learned about the science of robotics to their future students. The pre-service teachers’ experiences and engagements are revealed in detail and also discussed. Suggestions are presented here for guiding future educational robotics studies in the context of pre-service teachers’ education.