User needs for robots as pedagogical tools for language and literature teaching: Teachers’ perspectives on effective classroom integration of social robots

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on what teachers would need from social robots to effectively utilize them as teaching tools for different age groups of students in subjects focusing on language and literature. Previous studies show a pattern that long-term social robot implementation in classrooms has not been successful or that the intervention periods have been very brief. Based on the qualitative interviews of six teachers located in Finland, this study was used to find out what robots might be lacking in their design and features for them to be considered a longterm classroom solution. The research was done by interviewing the participants on their teaching habits, experience and preferences on teaching tools and resources. Three example robots (Paro, Nao and Furhat) were then introduced to the participants, followed by questions on how well they saw the robot to fit their own classroom use.

The results showed that the six participating teachers were generally open to experimenting with social robot use in their classroom. Overall, the requirements for robots were similar regardless of student age group the teachers specialized in. Teachers were used to the high flexibility of personalizing the teaching materials and wish for educational social robots to have the same level of example classroom activities that they can then edit to their liking. The participants showed high levels of care over the wellbeing, learning development and social lives of their students and would prefer for robots to not to disturb the social bonding in the classroom. Classroom engagement stems from these personal relationships as well as fitting the students’ own interests and needs typical of their age group into the class contents and activities that robots should also abide by. Robots should also be able to seamlessly navigate through group-based interactions with multiple concurrent users. Lastly, teachers also mirrored similar group-minded sharing culture in their own work tasks. Their working culture was usually structured around freely shared information, peer support and communal effort. For technical support, the participants preferred receiving information on new tools from peers that prioritize the educational utility over a technical specialist that might not have the same pedagogical approach.

This study contributed to the existing literature of robot-assisted learning by offering perspective on what aspects teachers find important in their first impressions of robots as educational tools. The results also shed light on what types of roles robots should be given in the classroom to avoid the common pitfalls of teachers losing trust in the robot as a tool, leading to its likely disuse in the classroom environment.