Kindergarten Social Assistive Robot (KindSAR) for children’s geometric thinking and metacognitive development in preschool education: A pilot study

"Programming Is Not That Hard!" When a Science Center Visit Increases Young Women's Programming Ability Beliefs

To increase engagement with science and technology, young people around the world are encouraged to attend activities at science centers. But how effective are these activities? Since women have weaker ability beliefs and interest in technology than men, it is especially important to learn how science center visits affect them. In this study, we tested if programming exercises offered to middle school students by a Swedish science center would increase ability beliefs and interest in programming. Students in grades 8 and 9 (n = 506) completed a survey before and after visiting the science center, and their ratings were compared to a wait-list control group (n = 169). The students participated in block-based, text-based, and robot programming exercises developed by the science center. The results showed that programming ability beliefs increased for women, but not men, and that interest in programming decreased for men, but not women. The effects persisted at a follow-up (2-3 months). The young men reported stronger ability beliefs and interest than the young women at all timepoints. The results imply that science center activities can make programming feel less hard, but adaptations may be needed to also increase interest.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41979-023-00094-w.

The Effects of Social Presence and Familiarity on Children-Robot Interactions

In children-robot interactions, an impression of a robot's "social presence" (i.e., an interactive agent that feels like a person) links positively to an improved relationship with the robot. However, building relationships takes many exposures, and there is an intellectual gap in how social presence and familiarity collaborate in modulating children-robot relationships. We investigated whether social presence altered over time, how repeated exposure and social presence affected rapport, and how social presence would modulate children's attitudes toward the robot. Fourteen children (four female, age = 10.79 ± 1.12) interacted with a companion robot for four days in spontaneous interactions. The findings revealed that children who perceived the robot as having a higher social presence developed a stronger rapport than those who perceived a lower social presence. However, repeated encounters did not change the children's perceptions of the robot's social presence. Children rated higher rapport after repeated interactions regardless of social presence levels. This suggests that while a higher social presence initially elevated the positive relationship between children and the robot, it was the repeated interactions that continued solidifying the rapport. Additionally, children who perceived a higher social presence from the robot felt less relational uneasiness about their relationship with robots. These findings highlight the importance of robots' social presence and familiarity in promoting positive relationships in children-robot interaction.

Unprepared management decreases education performance in kindergartens during Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education sector, including kindergartens. Kindergarten principals and teachers make extra effort to maintain their education performance. This research aims to identify problems of the “learning from home” policy in kindergarten education and formulate possible solutions to overcome them. It involved 15 respondents from different regions in Indonesia. Data were collected through several methods, including face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, and online interviews through messaging services. The research result showed that many kindergarten management boards encountered difficulties in fulfilling planned education schedules and had the low achievement of objective targets. The problems existed in teachers, parents, and mainly students. Most teachers faced problems in creating interactive education materials and conducting an evaluation. Parents had hard times in assisting their children due to their busy activities and low pedagogical competence. Children had hard times due to limited resources for online learning. This research suggests solutions such as improving the mastery of information and communication technology (ICT), especially for teachers, parents, and children. However, the education system's long-term reform is needed to prepare for facing the possible catastrophe that affects the education system. It may include integrating online learning in the traditional education system and the development of supporting infrastructure and facilities.

Ontology-Based Knowledge Representation in Robotic Systems: A Survey Oriented toward Applications

Knowledge representation in autonomous robots with social roles has steadily gained importance through their supportive task assistance in domestic, hospital, and industrial activities. For active assistance, these robots must process semantic knowledge to perform the task more efficiently. In this context, ontology-based knowledge representation and reasoning (KR & R) techniques appear as a powerful tool and provide sophisticated domain knowledge for processing complex robotic tasks in a real-world environment. In this article, we surveyed ontology-based semantic representation unified into the current state of robotic knowledge base systems, with our aim being three-fold: (i) to present the recent developments in ontology-based knowledge representation systems that have led to the effective solutions of real-world robotic applications; (ii) to review the selected knowledge-based systems in seven dimensions: application, idea, development tools, architecture, ontology scope, reasoning scope, and limitations; (iii) to pin-down lessons learned from the review of existing knowledge-based systems for designing better solutions and delineating research limitations that might be addressed in future studies. This survey article concludes with a discussion of future research challenges that can serve as a guide to those who are interested in working on the ontology-based semantic knowledge representation systems for autonomous robots.

Humanoid Robots and Autistic Children: A Review on Technological Tools to Assess Social Attention and Engagement

Recent studies suggest that robot-based interventions are potentially effective in diagnosis and therapy of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), demonstrating that robots can improve the engagement abilities and attention in autistic children. While methodological approaches vary significantly in these studies and are not unified yet, researchers often develop similar solutions based on similar conceptual and practical premises. We systematically review the latest robot-intervention techniques in ASD research (18 research papers), comparing multiple dimensions of technological and experimental implementation. In particular, we focus on sensor-based assessment systems for automated and unbiased quantitative assessments of children’s engagement and attention fluctuations during interaction with robots. We examine related technologies, experimental and methodological setups, and the empirical investigations they support. We aim to assess the strengths and limitations of such approaches in a diagnostic context and to evaluate their potential in increasing our knowledge of autism and in supporting the development of social skills and attentional dispositions in ASD children. Using our acquired results from the overview, we propose a set of social cues and interaction techniques that can be thought to be most beneficial in robot-related autism intervention.

Critical success factors for application of social robots in special developmental schools

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the role of social robots in the education industry, specifically within special developmental schools, as a part of an innovation technology portfolio. It identifies critical success factors (CSFs) arising from the development, adoption and implementation of social robots to educate students with special needs and assist their teachers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study engaged in longitudinal research over 12 months, tracking the role of the Matilda robot in providing educational services to students with special needs.

Findings

The results propose a three-faceted framework for social robot application in special education: development, adoption and implementation.

Originality/value

The study has shown the willingness of students and teachers to embrace social robot technology, and the CSF that arise from this adoption. It has also found that social robots achieve the greatest success within the development, adoption and implementation framework when championed by executive management, and peer teacher support.

The adoption of teaching assistant robots: a technology acceptance model approach

Purpose

Based on rapid improvements in telecommunications and wireless networks with extensive educational contents, numerous studies have been conducted to improve our educational success/attainment/environment. With this trend, the purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ perceptions of teaching assistant (TA) robots and the possible motivations that impact the users’ intention to use (IU) the robots.

Design/methodology/approach

In light of the rapid development of and attempts at understanding interactions with social robots, including TA robots, this study uses structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

Findings

The results indicated that perceived usefulness was the most crucial factor determining the users’ IU for TA robots. In addition, the relationships of the original technology acceptance model were confirmed. The study findings demonstrated the crucial importance of perceived enjoyment and service quality.

Originality/value

Although the role of TA robots has gained user attention, few investigations have been conducted to explain how IU is formed. The current study can thus act as the foundation for exploring the acceptance process in the context of TA robots.