Robot Drawings of Children Receiving Preschool Education and Their Opinions on Robots

Abstract

This study investigated preschool children’s opinions on educational robots using their robot drawings. The study group consisted of 64 five- and six-years old children in an independent kindergarden affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Ankara province, Turkey and participated in the Preschool Robotics Coding Workshop within the scope of the project titled “TUBITAK 4007 Science in the Footsteps of Cezeri” in the 2018-2019 academic year. For the purpose of this study phenomenology model as a qualitative research approach was adopted and data was collected through visual materials and semi-structured interviews to determine children’s opinions on robots. The data collection process was carried out in an eight-weeks period starting in March 2019 as one week for the acquaintance phase, six weeks for practice, and the last week for a two-day workshop with educational robots. In line with the findings of this research, the mechanical features of the robots were examined, it was determined that there was an increase in the battery drawings in children’s last drawings compared to their first drawings. It was also determined that the children responded to “Who builds the robots?” interview question as factories, scientists, machines, and repairers in the first interview while more than 90% of the children responded as scientists and engineers in the second interview.