Abstract:

The primary aim of this particular study is to present and analyze the effectiveness of a particular Educational Robotics intervention using the robotics construction kit Lego Wedo 2.0®. The present intervention was designed and implemented for Primary education students in Greece by the researcher. More specifically, we designed a sequence of educational meetings including a variety of educational activities concerning Educational Robotics’ concepts with interdisciplinary applications. The designed activities with the appropriate adaptions and modifications proposed can be used with students of almost all ages in Primary schools with the only exception being the 1st Grade As it is already shown by researchers in the past, students with autism often face difficulties in the social domain. The emphasis of this particular study is to investigate the impact of the specific Educational Robotics activities on the collaboration and communication of children with autism with their peers in inclusive educational contexts. We aim to investigate and highlight the way “typical development” students interact and collaborate in teams were a student with autism is also a member. The results concern the effectiveness of the particular Educational Robotics activities on the social participation and behavior of children with autism in the context of their team in inclusive educational contexts. Also interesting results arise regarding the positive effects as well as barriers to using these kind of technologies in the everyday teaching practice. It is worth noting that the intervention, which was designed, was also implemented and the results that are presented, derive form the analysis of the research data of a more extensive study. To be more specific, fourteen (14) students with autism and their peers (n=228) from 14 classes in 12 Primary schools in Greece participated in the study. Mixed research methods (observation, interview, initial – final assessment, sociograms) were employed before, during and after the intervention. The data analysis revealed results regarding the use of Educational Robotics for the promotion of the social domain of students with autism in inclusive educational contexts. To sum up, these teamwork Educational Robotics activities and the whole intervention could be used from teachers around the world in the future and could also be supplemented with new activities or teaching methods. This study enriches the existing literature with results, concerning how to design and combine the teaching of educational robotics concepts and the promotion of social communication skills for students with autism in Primary education in inclusive contexts.

Keywords:

Educational Robotics, Autism, Inclusion, Collaborative Learning.