Social Robots in Secondary Education: Can Robots Assist Young Adult Learners with Math Learning?

Abstract

Social robots have been extensively studied in educational settings for children and their positive impacts on children's learning are reported. The aim of this study was to find out whether embodied educational technologies such as robot tutors can also yield similar results with adult learners. An experiment was conducted in a secondary education mathematics classroom, where 15 students (of ages 17 to 20) worked on math exercises in two conditions. In one condition, a Nao robot was present as a math tutor to read the questions, collect answers and provide feedback. In the other condition, students practiced math exercises on a laptop which is a non-social and non-embodied technology. Results indicated that students in secondary education do not seem to favor using a robot tutor over traditional technologies. This implies that there is a difference between children and adults in the way they experience this technology in its current state-of-the-art for their education.