Exploring the role of floor robots in enhancing computational thinking skills and mental rotation in second and third graders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48489/quadrante.36860Keywords:
computational thinking, mental rotation, floor robots, primary school, gender differencesAbstract
The present study investigates the impact of using floor robots as educational tools to enhance computational thinking and mental rotation skills among second and third graders. In order to find out whether floor robots have a positive effect on improving students’ computational thinking and mental rotation abilities, a pre-experimental study has been carried out. Specifically, 25 second graders and 25 third graders took part in the experiment. The intervention tasks were designed from a lower to a higher degree of complexity. Three areas were assessed: students’ development of their computational thinking skills, students’ development of their mental rotation abilities, and potential gender differences in these abilities. After analysing the three specific objectives and conducting tests both before and after the intervention, it was concluded that the use of floor robots improves students’ computational thinking and mental rotation skills, regardless of students’ gender.
References
Angeli, C., & Georgiou, K. (2023). Investigating the effects of gender and scaffolding in developing preschool children’s computational thinking during problem-solving with Bee-Bots. In Frontiers in Education, 7, 757627. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.757627
Angeli, C., & Valanides, N. (2020). Developing young children’s computational thinking with educational robotics: An interaction effect between gender and scaffolding strategy. Computers in Human Behavior, 105, 105954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.018
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Razavieh, C. K., & Walker, D. (2009). Introduction to Research in Education. Wadsworth.
Bakala, E., Tejera, G., Visca, J., Hitta, S., & Hourcade, J. P. (2023). Programmable floor robot Robotito and its Tangible and Virtual Interface. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 745-747). https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3594486
Bati, K. (2022). A systematic literature review regarding computational thinking and programming in early childhood education. Education and Information Technologies, 27(2), 2059–2082. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10700-2
Bers, M. U. (2008). Using robotic manipulatives to develop technological fluency in early childhood. In O. Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on science and technology in early childhood education, 105-125. Information Age Publishing.
Brennan, K., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 2012 annual meeting of the American educational research association, Vancouver, Canada.
Bruce, C. D., & Hawes, Z. (2015). The role of 2D and 3D mental rotation in mathematics for young children: what is it? Why does it matter? And what can we do about it? ZDM-Mathematics Education, 47(3), 331–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0637-4
Cheng, Y. L., & Mix, K. S. (2013). Spatial training improves children’s mathematics ability. Journal of cognition and development, 15(1), 2-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2012.725186
Ching, Y. H., & Hsu, Y. C. (2023). Educational robotics for developing computational thinking in young learners: A systematic review. TechTrends, 68, 423–434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00841-1
Città, G., Gentile, M., Allegra, M., Arrigo, M., Conti, D., Ottaviano, S., Reale, F., & Sciortino, M. (2019). The effects of mental rotation on computational thinking. Computers & Education, 141, 103613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103613
Collins, D. W., & Kimura, D. (1997). A large sex difference on a two-dimensional mental rotation task. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111(4), 845–849. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.111.4.845
D’Abreu, J. V. V., & Condori, K. O. V. (2017). Education and Educative Robotics. Revista de Educación a Distancia (RED), 54. http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/red/54/11
Diago, P. D., González-Calero, J. A., & Yáñez, D. F. (2022). Exploring the development of mental rotation and computational skills in elementary students through educational robotics. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 32, 100388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100388
Drakatos, N., & Stompou, E. (2023). The perspective of STEM education through the usage of Robotics. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 18(3), 901-913. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2023.18.3.1146
Ebert, W. M., Jost, L., & Jansen, P. (2024). Gender stereotypes in preschoolers’ mental rotation. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1284314. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1284314
Enge, A., Kapoor, S., Kieslinger, A. S., & Skeide, M. A. (2023). A meta‐analysis of mental rotation in the first years of life. Developmental Science, 26(6), e13381. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13381
Georges, C., Cornu, V., & Schiltz, C. (2019). Spatial skills first: The importance of mental rotation for arithmetic skill acquisition. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 5(1), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v5i1.165
González‐Calero, J. A., Cózar, R., Villena, R., & Merino, J. M. (2019). The development of mental rotation abilities through robotics‐based instruction: An experience mediated by gender. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(6), 3198-3213. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12726
Hertanti, A., Retnawati, H., & Wutsqa, D. U. (2019). The role of spatial experience in mental rotation. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1320(1), 012043). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1320/1/012043
Isharyadi, R., & Juandi, D. (2023). A systematics literature review of computational thinking in mathematics education: Benefits and challenges. Formatif: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan MIPA, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.30998/formatif.v13i1.15922
Julià, C., & Antolì, J. Ò. (2018). Enhancing spatial ability and mechanical reasoning through a STEM course. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 28(4), 957-983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-017-9428-x
Karp, N. A., & Fry, D. (2021). What is the optimum design for my animal experiment?. BMJ Open Science, 5(1). 10.1136/bmjos-2020-100126
Lauer, J. E., Yhang, E., & Lourenco, S. F. (2019). The development of gender differences in spatial reasoning: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 145(6), 537–565. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000191
Lin, S., & Wong, G. K. (2024). Gender differences in computational thinking skills among primary and secondary school students: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 14(7), 790. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14070790
Linn, M., & Petersen, A. C. (1985). Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis. Child development, 56(6), 1479-1498. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130467
Ma, S., & Wang, T. (2023). The optimal pre-post allocation for randomized clinical trials. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 23(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-01893-w
Mast, F. W., & Gurtner, L. M. (2023). Mental rotation and visual imagery. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.776
Masters, M. S., & Sanders, B. (1993). Is the gender difference in mental rotation disappearing? Behavior Genetics, 23(4), 337–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067434
Miola, L., Muffato, V., Pazzaglia, F., & Meneghetti, C. (2023). Men’s and women’s egocentric and allocentric knowledge: The involvement of mental rotation ability and spatial beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1130549. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1130549
Niousha, R., Saito, D., Washizaki, H., & Fukazawa, Y. (2023). Investigating the effect of binary gender preferences on computational thinking skills. Education Sciences, 13(5), 433. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050433
Niousha, R., Saito, D., Washizaki, H., & Fukazawa, Y. (2022). Gender characteristics and computational thinking in Scratch. In M. Doyle, B. Stephenson, B. Dorn, L.-K. Soh, & L. Battestilli (Eds.), Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (Vol 2., pp. 1344-1344). https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576290
Osorio, A., & Caballa, S. (2023). BeeBot: A robot that help children manage their blood glucose in a friendly way. In Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 841-844). https://doi.org/10.1145/3568294.3580197
Pei, Z., & Nie, Y. (2018). Educational robots: Classification, characteristics, application areas and problems. In W. Zhang, Y. Wang, & M. Li (Eds.), Seventh International Conference of Educational Innovation through Technology (EITT) (pp. 57-62). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/EITT.2018.00020
Pérez-Suay, A., García-Bayona, I., Van Vaerenbergh, S., & Pascual-Venteo, A. B. (2023). Assessing a didactic sequence for computational thinking development in early education using educational robots. Education Sciences, 13(7), 669. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13070669
Peters, M., Laeng, B., Latham, K., Jackson, M., Zaiyouna, R., & Richardson, C. (1995). A redrawn Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotations test-different versions and factors that affect performance. Brain and cognition, 28(1), 39-58. https://doi.org/10.1006/brcg.1995.1032
Raimundo, A. J., & dos Santos, C. A. (2023). Computational thinking: Unplugged activities in elementary school. Journal of Interdisciplinary Debates, 4(01), 47-69. https://doi.org/10.51249/jid.v4i01.1253
Ramírez Uclés, R., & Ramírez-Uclés, I. (2023). Gender differences in mental rotation test: a geometry-teaching perspective. Educación XX1, 26(2), 351-372. https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.33150
Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong kindergarten: Cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers, and play. MIT press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11017.001.0001
Román-González, M. (2015). Computational thinking test: Design guidelines and content validation. In EDULEARN15 Proceedings (pp. 2436-2444). IATED. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4203.4329
Rovshenov, A., Büyükdede, M., & Acar, V. (2022). Integration of Educational Robotics to STEM Education. In Handbook of Research on Integrating ICTs in STEAM Education (pp. 219-238). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3861-9.ch011
Seckel, M. J., Salinas, C., Font, V., & Sala-Sebastia, G. (2023). Guidelines to develop computational thinking using the Bee-bot robot from the literature. Education and Information Technologies, 28(12), 16127-16151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11843-0
Seepanomwan, K., Caligiore, D., Baldassarre, G., & Cangelosi, A. (2013). A cognitive robotic model of mental rotation. In 2013 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence, Cognitive Algorithms, Mind, and Brain (CCMB) (pp. 36-43). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/CCMB.2013.6609163
Sharma, K., Papavlasopoulou, S., & Giannakos, M. (2019). Coding games and robots to enhance computational thinking: How collaboration and engagement moderate children’s attitudes? International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 21, 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2019.04.004
Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171(3972), 701-703. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.171.3972.701
Sheoran, N., & Chaudhary, K. (2023). Robots in Education: Diverting Force in Emotional Well Being of Students. In P. C. Sharma, R. Bansal, & R. Singh (Eds.), Technology-Driven E-Learning Pedagogy Through Emotional Intelligence, (pp. 58-80). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-7639-0.ch005
Somyürek, S. (2015). An effective educational tool: construction kits for fun and meaningful learning. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 25, 25-41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-014-9272-1
Stratton, S. J. (2019). Quasi-experimental design (pre-test and post-test studies) in prehospital and disaster research. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 34(6), 573-574. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X19005053
Vandenberg, S. G., & Kuse, A. R. (1978). Mental rotations, a group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual and motor skills, 47(2), 599-604. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1978.47.2.599
Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35. https://doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215
Zapata-Cáceres, M., Martín-Barroso, E., & Román-González, M. (2020). Computational thinking test for beginners: Design and content validation. In 2020 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (pp. 1905-1914). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125368
Zawadzka, E. (2022). Differences between men and women in cognitive strategies applied in mental rotation tasks. Acta Neuropsychologica, 20(2), 225-240. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0015.9186
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) belongs to Quadrante. Nevertheless, we encourage articles to be published in institutional or personal repositories as long as their original publication in Quadrante is identified and a link to the journal's website is included.
