Hoorn, J.F.; Huang, I.S.; Konijn, E.A.; van Buuren, L. Robot Tutoring of Multiplication: Over One-Third Learning Gain for Most, Learning Loss for Some. Robotics2021, 10, 16.
Hoorn, J.F.; Huang, I.S.; Konijn, E.A.; van Buuren, L. Robot Tutoring of Multiplication: Over One-Third Learning Gain for Most, Learning Loss for Some. Robotics 2021, 10, 16.
Hoorn, J.F.; Huang, I.S.; Konijn, E.A.; van Buuren, L. Robot Tutoring of Multiplication: Over One-Third Learning Gain for Most, Learning Loss for Some. Robotics2021, 10, 16.
Hoorn, J.F.; Huang, I.S.; Konijn, E.A.; van Buuren, L. Robot Tutoring of Multiplication: Over One-Third Learning Gain for Most, Learning Loss for Some. Robotics 2021, 10, 16.
Abstract
In the design of educational robots, it seems undecided whether robots should show social behaviors and look human-like or that such cues are indifferent to learning. We conducted an experiment with different designs of social robots, rehearsing the multiplication tables with primary school children in Hong Kong. Results show that affective bonding tendencies may occur but did not significantly contribute to the learning progress of these children, perhaps due to the short interaction period. Nonetheless, 5 minutes of robot tutoring improved their scores with about 30% and only for a few challenged children, performance dropped. We discuss that topics such as teaching language skills may be fostered by human likeness in appearance and behaviors but that for STEM-related subjects, the social aspects of robots hardly matter.
Keywords
robot-tutelage; social robots; multiplications; experience design
Subject
Business, Economics and Management, Accounting and Taxation
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
