Developing Robot-Supported Inclusive Education (ROSIE):A Play-Based Approach to STEM Teaching and Inclusion in Early Childhood Education
Lykke Brogaard Bertel, Eva Brooks, Susanne Dau · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) · 2019
The presence of educational robots in preschool and early primary school settings is getting stronger and has shown to have powerful playful qualities and to support interest in STEM (Camilleri, 2017). The question is whether it is possible to make use of these advantages and apply a robot-supported STEM-based approach to facilitate inclusion and improve the challenging educational transfers in children’s early life (5-8 years of age). Based on related research within inclusive education, play- and robot-supported learning as well as an empirical pilot study with the educational robot KUBO in Denmark, this paper proposes a design-based research approach to the development of situated and practice-based robot-supported learning designs in the transition between preschool and primary school with the aim of supporting and empowering children’s essential life skills including imagination, collaboration and communication skills and to provide pathways capable of including and detecting a diversity of children’s needs and skills related to STEM early and in a more advanced way than currently offered by traditional usage of educational technology.