Early adolescents' perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics

Introduction The use of robots in our daily life is becoming more and more popular. For example, robots can be used to serve the human beings, in teaching children language or in assisting the disabled. The learning of robotics maybe a trend and can give students an opportunity to design and create new applications (Resnick, Ocko & Papert, 1988). Many researchers have attempted to probe the factors that influence the manner in which students use and learn robotics (Liu, Kou, Lin, Cheng & Chen, 2008). However, few have explored students’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics. This study can be considered as a pilot study that investigates early adolescents’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics. The students’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics shape their attitudes and behaviours towards the use of educational robots and learning of robotics. Therefore, this study conducted interviews to investigate early adolescents’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics, to assign categories to the descriptions of their perceptions, and to develop a scale in order to collect more students’ perceptions of educational robots and learning of robotics.