Social Robot NAO as a Self-Regulating Didactic Mediator: a Case Study of Teaching/Learning Numeracy

Abstract

Educational robotics (ER) have demonstrated their positive effect in introducing scientific concepts. This paper presents an innovative approach to introduce arithmetic to elementary school students, with the aid of a social robot-assistant. The proposed innovative approach is a game-based learning activity, specially designed for K-12 educational curriculum in-line with modern pedagogical learning theories. The aim of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of robotics in education. The pilot application of collaborative teaching between robot and teacher, assumed that the presence of the robot could potentially increase the engagement during the course, enhance the understanding of mathematical concepts, computational and logical thinking and contribute to the improvement of cognitive skills of children.