Abstract:

There is a growing interest in exploring how social robots can be used for teaching and learning and robots are now studied in a variety of subjects. When robots are used for teaching, they are often assigned a role with a social character appropriate for the intended learning activity. This study focuses on a learning activity where a child plays a digital mathematics game together with a social robot in a middle school classroom. The activity is based on the idea of learning-by-teaching, where the robot has been designed as a tutee and the child is assigned the role of tutor. Through interviews and questionnaires, the children’s, and the teacher's experiences of the learning activity were captured. How does the social robot perform as a tool for teaching and learning? How should the activity be organized and how should the teacher act?

The study shows that the children think that the robot can express itself verbally and ask appropriate questions. They experience it as a social and fun co-player. However, the robot has several limitations, where difficulties in verbal communication are the most characteristic, such as language recognition, timing, and strange comments. In addition, children react negatively to the robot losing attention to the child and not being able to play the game properly. Moreover, the children think that the activity can be carried out both individually and in groups but consider that the teacher must be in the classroom to explain the activity and above all, to support the child-robot interaction both verbally and technically.

In many ways, the teacher expresses similar thoughts as the children. The robot engages students and through its questions, the robot makes them reflect and communicate mathematics. As the robot gives students continuous responses, students become more persistent in their learning. The teacher also mentions problems with verbal child-robot communication. The students need to speak loud and clear with reasonably long sentences and the right timing. In addition, the teacher experiences technical problems, such as the players losing contact with each other.

The teacher considers the activity challenging to carry out in a classroom partly because background noise interferes with the robot interaction and partly because the activity is not suitable for all students. The teacher also mentions the importance of introducing the game and declaring the purpose of the activity, since it may be hard for students to focus on the game and the robot simultaneously. If using the activity in teaching, the teacher imagines that [s]he needs to support the child-robot interaction, i.e., repeat and explain the robot's questions and help the child with what, how, and when to answer the robot. Besides, the teacher may also help with mathematics and encourage strategies and detailed explanations. Unlike the children, the teacher thinks that the activity enables opportunities for assessment of the playing students.

Finally, the study also revealed some ethical dilemmas with using social robots in educational contexts. It was partly about renegotiating prevailing social norms and partly about the deception of assigning a tool human characteristic. Together with the technical and didactic experiences of teaching and learning with social robots, the study provided an insight into a[n] [in]possible future.

Keywords:

Social Robots, Teacher Role, Education.