Educational Robots in Primary Education

Nikolina Benčak¹, Predrag Oreški²

¹ Kindergarten Kalnički jaglac, Kalnik

² University of Zagreb Faculty of Teacher Education

Digitalne obrazovne tehnologije

Original scientific paper

Abstract

Today artificial intelligence (AI) is present even on devices such as smartphones that are widely used on a daily basis. One of the research areas of AI is robotics and robots are increasingly used, especially in manufacturing, warehouses, and trade where they replace humans. In addition to computer and information literacy, robotic literacy seems to be increasingly important. The simplest way to introduce robotics in primary education is by the means of educational robots. This paper presents the results of research on the application of educational robots in primary education of the Republic of Croatia.

The research hypotheses are as follows: less than a third of the respondents use educational robots in the daily teaching process with the aim of improving teaching; there is a statistically significant difference in the application of educational robots in the teaching process with regard to the respondents’ age; there is a statistically significant difference in the application of educational robots in the teaching process with regard to the respondents’ field of achieved education; there is a statistically significant difference in the application of educational robots in the respondents who are primary education teachers (grades 1-4) compared to the respondents who are subject teachers (grades 5-8).
The research data were collected in May 2021 on a sample of respondents consisting of 228 primary education and subject teachers employed in elementary schools in the Republic of Croatia. An anonymous online survey questionnaire constructed by the authors of this paper was used. Descriptive statistics and a chi-square test were used in the statistical analysis of the data. The research results confirm all the above hypotheses.