Abstract:

Improvements in robotics engineering have led to many efforts to introduce robots in different fields. In the education field, many schools have attempted to introduce robots into classrooms but have been hindered by teachers and pre-service teachers’ negative attitudes toward robots and robot education. Researchers have found that robot-programming education can positively influence pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward robots, but whether this education or control of the robot is the key to changing attitudes toward robots has not been determined. Therefore, to investigate the cause of this attitude change, participants in this study were divided into four groups: those who received robot programming education, programming education, Information Communication Technology(ICT) education and pedagogy education.

Pre-service teachers studying education at the university level were divided into four groups and took pre- and post-tests examining their attitudes toward robots. The results were analyzed statistically. Robot programming classes, programming classes, ICT classes and pedagogy classes were considered subjects in a liberal education, and students enrolled in these classes were recruited as research participants and took a pre-test.

The test tool was a translated version of the negative attitudes toward robots scale developed by Nomura et al. (2006). After the post-test, the results were analyzed statistically to identify effective ways to positively change attitudes toward robots.

This study could help suggest effective robot education methods for pre-service teachers and teacher training to emphasize the importance of robots in modern society. Moreover, this model points to possible directions for robot education for not only teachers but also students.

Keywords:

Robot programming education, attitude toward robots, pre-service teacher education.