Robotics from stem areas in primary school: A systematic review

Abstract

Upon the need for scientific schooling at a young age, the use of robotics in an educational context establishes a valuable didactic resource to develop a STEM centred education. A systematic review has been made, following the declaration Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Prisma) guidelines. The aim of this review is characterizing the scientific production related with STEM education, from working with educational robotics in primary school, thereby research questions are presented about bibliometric indicators, research methodologies employed, the relationship between STEM areas and educational robotics, or social and gender aspects. The research was made in three international databases (Scopus, ERIC and WoS), achieving to find 463 articles, of which 26 documents were selected that met the inclusion criteria. The results show that the investigations that use mixed methodologies are the most used and, at the same time, present a more significant number of citations in Google Scholar. Regarding the first authors’ gender approach and the research groups, these are presented equitably. Similarly, there are no differences in access, development, and skill acquisition among participants as a result of the investigations. Also, a more significant implementation of proposals is observed in the after-school hours, improving the attitude and acquisition of skills in STEM areas.