Author(s)

Liang Gong, Zhuang Fu, Chengliang Liu, Peng Song

Corresponding Author

Liang Gong

Abstract

Educational Robotics plays an important role in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and underpins a high-order labour education for future career development. Previously educators and engineers overlook the developmental and psychological implications of educational robotics, especially for students in elementary schools. The paper initiates an empirical study of the psychological impact side of the educational robots, highlighting the social and personal effects from a human-robot interaction perspective. First, a survey is designed to acquire the participants’ social behaviour and their involvement in the educational robots. Second, a t-test based study of the social interaction, aggression, and reciprocal relationship are analysed quantitatively according to the questionnaires. The empirical study shows that students with education in robotics and those with no education in robotics differed in social interaction and aggression personality, however, it does not support the hypothesis that there was a difference in reciprocal relationship between the two original and control groups. This study reveals that the educational robotics has pros and cons with respect to their psychological reactions, which lays a foundation stone for stakeholders, such as educators, parents, and engineers are to take actions to avoid negative effects during whole-person education.

Keywords

Educational Robotics, Psychological Impact, Empirical Study