Abstract:

In recent years there has been a shift in the STEM education, many research has highlighted STEM's contribution to the development of students' important skills. Educational robotics can be a powerful tool for designing STEM activities. The educational robotics laboratory can be the most suitable learning environment. Basic parameters for the use of the educational robotics lab in schools as an educational environment are the teacher's ability to create and use this environment also, his/her acceptance and understanding of the students. This paper attempts to study the learning outcomes of the STEM domains and the skills offered by educational robotics to students, as a teaching tool in primary education. The research has been conducted among 242 IT teachers from all over Greece. Factors such as ease of use, utility, social influence, entertainment, uniqueness, innovation, quality, expectation of performance and expectation of effort were investigated whether affect the intention to use educational robotics during the learning process. The results indicate that Greek ΙΤ teachers tend to have a positive attitude towards the use of educational robotics. They also believe that educational robotics offers opportunities for innovation, which positively affects the intention to use it. Finally, it is remarkable that the overwhelming majority of respondents are interested in training on robotics, an encouraging ascertainment for the renewal and the development of the educational system.

Keywords:

Discovery Learning, Project Based Method, Educational Robotics, STEM, ICT.