Identifying Functions and Behaviours of Social Robots during Learning Activities: Teachers' Perspective

TL;DR

This study explores teachers' perspectives on how social robots can support learning activities in classrooms, identifying potential functions and behaviors to enhance educational experiences based on interviews and socio-technical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a socio-technical framework for conceptualizing robot functions in education and highlights teachers' envisioned roles for social robots in classroom activities.

Findings

Teachers responded positively to social robot integration.

Different usage scenarios for teacher-robot and student-robot interactions.

Identified tensions in learning activities addressed by robot functions.

Abstract

With advances in artificial intelligence, research is increasingly exploring the potential functions that social robots can play in education. As teachers are a critical stakeholder in the use and application of educational technologies, we conducted a study to understand teachers' perspectives on how a social robot could support a variety of learning activities in the classroom. Through interviews, robot puppeteering, and group brainstorming sessions with five elementary and middle school teachers from a local school in Canada, we take a socio-technical perspective to conceptualize possible robot functions and behaviours, and the effects they may have on the current way learning activities are designed, planned, and executed. Overall, the teachers responded positively to the idea of introducing a social robot as a technological tool for learning activities, envisioning differences in usage for teacher-robot and student-robot interactions. Further, Engestr\"om's Activity System Model -- a framework for analyzing human needs, tasks, and outcomes -- illustrated a number of tensions associated with learning activities in the classroom. We discuss the fine-grained robot functions and behaviours conceived by teachers, and how they address the current tensions -- providing suggestions for improving the design of social robots for learning activities.