Abstract:

In this paper author presents the research results of exploring the opinion of primary education prospective teachers about their own current knowledge of educational robots, about their interest in this field, do they think that educational robots can be useful in teaching, and whether they think that knowledge of educational robots and their programming is important for primary education students in terms of their future occupations.

The artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in everyday life. There are many apps which use AI capabilities, and which are currently implemented on common devices such as smartphones. Such apps are used for image recognition, voice recognition and voice commands, converting speech to text and text to speech, solving mathematical problems, maps navigation, and so on.

One of the AI’s fields of research is robotics. One of the easiest ways for primary education students to enter this field is by using educational robots. To use them, the students often have to assemble them first and then to write computer programs for them so that educational robots can accomplish some specific tasks by themselves.

Educational robots can inspire and motivate primary education students in almost every primary education subject. Since today’s primary education students are all members of so-called generation Z, it seems that for them an educational robot is just another gadget because they already use smartphones, tablets, computers, and other electronic gadgets through all their lives.

The research hypotheses are:
Hypothesis 1: Primary education prospective teachers would like to learn more about educational robots and their programming.
Hypothesis 2: Primary education prospective teachers believe that educational robots can be useful in presentation and teaching in different subjects in primary education.
Hypothesis 3: Primary education prospective teachers’ opinion is that the knowledge of educational robots and their programming is important for the future occupations of the primary education students.

The survey participants were 109 (106 female and 3 male) primary education prospective teachers - the students at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Teacher Education. The data were collected in January and February 2020. using the anonymous online Google Forms questionnaire prepared by the author. Statistical analysis (including One Sample t-test) was performed using the free and open-source statistical software GNU PSPP, version 1.0.1. (https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/).

On the scale 1-insufficient to 5-excellent the average participant’s self-evaluation of current knowledge of educational robots and their programming is 2,06.
On the Likert scale (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree) they would like to learn more about educational robots and their programming (M=3,54, t=4,49, sig. < 0,01). On the Likert scale (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree) primary education prospective teachers believe that educational robots can be useful for the presentation and teaching of different subjects in primary education (M=3,77, t=7,79, sig. < 0,01). On the Likert scale (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree) primary education prospective teachers’ opinion is that the knowledge of educational robots and their programming is important for the future occupations of the primary education students (M=3,48, t=4,82, sig. < 0,01).

All three hypotheses are confirmed.

Keywords:

Prospective teachers, primary education, educational robots, future occupations.