Assessing teacher readiness for educational robotics integration in primary and preschool education
Leonidas Gavrilas, Konstantinos Τ. Kotsis, Marianna-Sotiria Papanikolaou
Abstract
Educational Robotics combines elements of many sciences, covering all fields of STEM education. Its successful implementation depends largely on the teachers who will be asked to implement it in a school classroom. This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence the declaration of readiness of primary and preschool education teachers regarding the challenge of the use of educational robotics. The research involved 307 (n = 307) teachers, 191 (62.2%) of them were preschool teachers and 115 (37.8%) primary school teachers. The data was collected using a closed questionnaire called AKAER, with a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of α = .924. While the benefits of using educational robotics are significant, its integration into the educational process requires more than a simple hardware setup. It primarily necessitates adequately trained educators. The general conclusion of the research is that teachers declare difficulty in programming issues, while their training can significantly improve the declaration of their degree of readiness.