Title: In-service teachers' beliefs about educational robotics in preschool classroom

Authors: Stamatios Papadakis

Addresses: Department of Preschool Education, University of Crete, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece

Abstract: Children today live in a digital world that is evolving with technological advances and innovative technologies. Governments and policymakers around the globe are becoming interested in how to effectively bridge technology and economic prosperity as a driver for transforming teaching and learning through digital education. In early childhood education especially, educational robotics is a type of technology that is more suited than other tools. The reason is that robots have appealing features and functions keeping children's attention, improving their performance, concentration, cognitive flexibility among others. But any effort to facilitate educational robotics in school settings must necessarily consider the role of the teachers, who are called to realise the goals specified by national curricula and educational programs. This study is designed to investigate Greek teachers' beliefs of using educational robotics technology, as well as key issues to consider for the future establishment of these technologies in the preschool classroom.

Keywords: educational robotics; preschool education; in-service teachers; kindergarten; beliefs; perceptions; computational thinking; coding; STEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTEL.2022.121770

International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 2022 Vol.14 No.2, pp.125 - 141

Received: 02 Jun 2020
Accepted: 17 Jun 2020
Published online: 07 Apr 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article