Pupils’ understanding of robotics as a disruptive technology
David Barlex, Torben Steeg · 2018
This paper concerns the teaching of disruptive technologies in the school design; technology curriculum in England. It builds on previous work by the authors (Barlex and Stevens 2012, Barlex, Givens and Steeg 2013). It will report a small pilot on teaching about robots as a disruptive technology and investigate pupils’ understanding of and attitudes towards robots. It asks the questions: What do young people at school believe about ‘robots in the world’? What do they think robots can do now and what might they be able to do in the future? These questions will be probed by using a questionnaire with year 7 pupils at a secondary school in west London as part of their work on understanding the ‘implications of science and technology on our lives’. The questionnaire will also probe pupils’ views on the appearance of robots and how this might relate to the tasks they tackle. This builds on work by Prakash and Rogers (2013) on younger and older adults’ attitudes towards robot faces. The research is part of a curriculum development project concerning the role of disruptive technologies in the teaching of new and emerging technologies as required by the new National Curriculum in England (DfE 2013).