Investigating Learning Processes Through Educational Robotics

Vygotskij (1974) affirmed that it is not possible to investigate the cognitive activity of human subjects without considering the artefacts that mediate it. His thesis has been confirmed by various researchers in the area of cognitive science (Hutchins 1995; Norman 1993; Zhang & Norman 1995). In particular, the constructivist approach studies the use of tools in educational contexts and considers the learning as the result of a process of acquisition and construction of knowledge through the observation of the effects of actions (Piaget & Inhelder 1970). Actually, many constructivist technologies (Papert 1984; Papert & Harel 1991; Martin 1994; Resnick 1994), such as the Lego Mindstorms kit, allow students to design, build and program artefacts, in particular, robotics objects (Bertacchini et al. 2003; Druin 2000; Arcella et al. 2003), providing the opportunity for students to learn problem-solving strategies. In this way, these technologies also encourage creativeness, self-esteem and create a link between the concrete experience and the educational aims (Miglino et al. 1999). After preliminary lessons about some concepts of robotics and the Lego Mindstorms kit, students of a general psychology course of the University of Calabria, Italy, attended an 11-week robotics laboratory program for two hours a week. One of the tasks of this program was to create groups who work together to design and build robots capable of negotiating an obstacle course within an arena faster than other robots built by other groups. During the laboratory activities, each group had to design, build, program and test the performance of their own robot; moreover, they had to document each phase of the work through reports, schemes, photos and videos, as cognitive fingerprints of their mental activities. Elements detected as a result of this process included the following: • work distribution and leadership in each group • task organisation, related to cognitive strategies in problem solving • number of tests needed before the robot was able to complete the obstacle course, or arena. This data was correlated with the best race times obtained by each robot in the final performance. Subjects established a circular process during the construction of a robot able to run the task: in the real physical situation (arena), the feedback of the testing phase was important data for modifying the structure of the robot or the software program or both.