Adding More Value Than Work: Practical Guidelines for Integrating Robots into Intercultural Competence Learning

TL;DR

This paper offers practical design guidelines for integrating social robots into K-12 intercultural competence education, emphasizing complementary roles and addressing ethical concerns.

Contribution

It presents a user-centered design process with teachers to develop effective, ethically sound robot-mediated intercultural activities for schools.

Findings

Identification of suitable classroom robot scenarios

Strategies for robots to complement teachers

Addressing ethical and compliance considerations

Abstract

While social robots have demonstrated effectiveness in supporting students' intercultural competence development, it is unclear how they can effectively be adopted for integrated use in K-12 schools. We conducted two phases of design workshops with teachers, where they co-designed robot-mediated intercultural activities while considering student needs and school integration concerns. Using thematic analysis, we identify appropriate scenarios and roles for classroom robots, explore how robots could complement rather than replace teachers, and consider how to address ethical and compliance considerations. Our findings provide practical design guidelines for the HRI community to develop social robots that can effectively support intercultural education in K-12 schools.