The aim of our empirical research is to investigate the conditions of the use of robotics in education and the attitudes of students towards robotics. Our research questions were (1) what are the typical conditions (infrastructure, institutional) for teaching programming, including robotics, and (2) what students' attitudes towards robotics-related activities are like. In relation to the first question, we assumed that the infrastructure related to robotics differs from institution to institution. For the latter question, we hypothesized (H1) that students have positive attitudes towards robotics regardless of age (personal technology identity, curiosity), and (H2) that positive attitudes towards its use for learning purposes decrease with age. We conducted our research using an online questionnaire; we measured the context of robotics education using a self-developed questionnaire and students' attitudes using the RAAS 2015 (Robotics Activity Attitudes Scale) developed by Cross et al (2016). The survey was conducted in five primary schools in a Budapest school district, involving only students studying Digital Culture (grades 3, 5, 6 and 7; N=162). The preliminary results of our ongoing research seem to confirm our assumptions; in the institutions studied, the infrastructure related to robotics education (e.g. number and type of robots available), the conditions of teaching the subject (number of hours, grouping), the possibilities of extracurricular robotics education were different. Despite the fact that robotics is taught in all grades of the Digital Culture subject, nearly 10% of the students reported not having used any block-based programming platform. Students' attitudes towards robotics were positive, which did not differ across the grades studied.

1. EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS IN
PRIMARY SCHOOLS:
INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS AND
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE
BALÁZS CZÉKMÁN
KISPESTI PUSKÁS FERENC PRIMARY SCHOOL
ICT RESEARCH CENTER, KRE
ICT MASTERMINDS RESEARCH GROUP

2. HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
Technology
that
surrounds
children
NAT 2020:
Digital
Culture
Objectives
of
introducing
ER
Positive
effects on
knowledge,
skills,
attitudes
THE RISE OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS (ER)

3. ▪ purchases by KK
▪ tenders
(NTP, Meet and Code)
▪ Other sources
(municipalities, companies,
personal supports
▪ „Wandering Robots”
▪ teachers (lower primary)
▪ after school programs by
companies
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
▪ lack of
infrastructure
▪ problems of
teacher training
▪ lack of teachers
THE CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING ER

4. ▪ AIM OF THE RESEARCH
▪ Our aim was to investigate the conditions of the use of robotics in
education and the attitudes of students towards robotics.
▪ METHODOLOGY: Survey
▪ DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENTS:
▪ Self-developed online questionnaire,
▪ Modified RAAS 2015 (Robotics Activity Attitudes Scale
by Cross Et Al (2016)
▪ TIME OF DATA GATHERING: APRIL – MAY, 2023
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
DETAILS OF THE RESEARCH

5. HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
THE RAAS 2015 QUESTIONNAIRE
The students’ positive feelings
towards robotics activities.
The students’ belief that they can
be good at robotics.
The students’ personal
connection to robotics.
The students’ personal
connection to technology.
The students’ motivation to seek
understanding about robotics.
Dimensions Items
Cronbach's
Alpha
CONFIDENCE 10 0,881
LEARNING POTENTIAL 10 0,922
PERSONAL ROBOTICS
IDENTITY
10 0,911
PERSONAL TECHN.
IDENTITY
6 0,902
CURIOSITY 6 0,946

6. ▪ Three schools from one
School District, Budapest
SAMPLE
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
▪ Students who learn Digital Culture
(N=208)
school1 106
school2 95
school3 7
Boys,
61%
Girls,
39%
27
74
28
79
Grade 3
Grade 5
Gtade 6
Grade 7

7. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, HYPOTHESES
▪ (1) What are the typical conditions (infrastructure, institutional) for
teaching programming, including robotics?
▪ (2) What are students' attitudes towards robotics-related activities
like?
▪ (3) How students’ attitudes towards robotics vary by different
variables (gender, school, grade, number of lessons, class szize)
▪ (H1) Attitudes towards robotics is getting more (or remains)
positive with age (grade).
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023

8. Number of lessons
1 2
Grade 3 56% 44%
Grade 5 69% 31%
Grade 6 18% 82%
Grade 7 94% 6%
70% 30%
Group;
81,7%
Class;
18,3%
Group/Class
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
GROUPS/CLASS, NR OF LESSONS

9. Yes;
11%
No;
89%
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
APPLYING ER IN OTHER SUBJECTS

10. Robotics or IT in school Robotics or IT out of school
Not available 33,2%
Available, but do
not participate.
59,6%
Available,
participate.
6,7%
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS (ROBOTICS/IT)
Yes;
5%
No;
95%

11. Lesson
After school
activitiy
Micro:bit 136 (65%) 73 (35%)
Bee-Bot, Blue-Bot 73 (35%) 38 (18%)
Edison 23 (11%) 9 (4%)
LEGO-robots 15 (7%) 23 (11%)
ArTeC 2 (1%) 4 (2%)
We don’t use any. 51 (25%) 102 (49%)
Total 300 249
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
TYPES OF ROBOTS IN SCHOOL

12. HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
20; 10%
18; 9%
19; 9%
24; 12%
108; 52%
176; 85%
We don't use any.
EdBlocks
ScratchJr
EdScratch
MakeCode
Scratch

13. ATTITUDE TOWARDS ER - GENDER
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
3,0
3,4 3,2
2,8
3,2
2,6
2,9
2,5
2,2
2,7
0,0
0,5
1,0
1,5
2,0
2,5
3,0
3,5
4,0
CONFIDENCE* LEARNING
POTENTIAL*
PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
IDENTITY*
PERSONAL
TECHN.
IDENTITY*
CURIOSITY*
Boys Girls
(* ANOVA is significant)

14. ATTITUDE TOWARDS ER - SCHOOLS
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
(* ANOVA is significant), School 3 was excluded)
2,8
3,4
3,1
2,8
3,4
2,8 3,0 2,8
2,4
2,6
0,0
0,5
1,0
1,5
2,0
2,5
3,0
3,5
4,0
CONFIDENCE LEARNING
POTENTIAL*
PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
IDENTITY*
PERSONAL
TECHN.
IDENTITY*
CURIOSITY*
School 1 School 2

15. ATTITUDE TOWARDS ER - GRADE
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
(* ANOVA is significant)
2,9
3,9
3,6 3,4
4,1
2,7 2,8 2,7
2,1 2,3
0,0
1,0
2,0
3,0
4,0
5,0
CONFIDENCE LEARNING
POTENTIAL*
PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
IDENTITY*
PERSONAL
TECHN.
IDENTITY*
CURIOSITY*
Grade 3 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7

16. ATTITUDE TOWARDS ER – NR. OF LESSONS
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
(* ANOVA is significant)
2,80
3,10
2,87
2,54
2,82
2,86
3,41
3,11
2,72
3,40
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
3,00
3,50
4,00
CONFIDENCE LEARNING
POTENTIAL
PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
IDENTITY
PERSONAL
TECHN.
IDENTITY
CURIOSITY*
1 2

17. ATTITUDE TOWARDS ER – CLASS SIZE
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023
(* ANOVA is significant)
2,9
3,2
3,0
2,6
3,0
2,5
3,0 2,9
2,7
2,9
0,0
0,5
1,0
1,5
2,0
2,5
3,0
3,5
4,0
CONFIDENCE* LEARNING
POTENTIAL
PERSONAL
ROBOTICS
IDENTITY
PERSONAL
TECHN.
IDENTITY
CURIOSITY
Group Class

18. ▪ The conditions for teaching programming are ambivalent: the number
of the lessons and the class sizes are good, but the infrastructure (lack
of robots) and the human resources are not optimal.
▪ ER hardly appear in other subjects and the majority of the students
doesn’t participate in after school activities.
▪ Students’ attitudes towards robotics vary by different variables
(gender, school, number of lessons, class size)
▪ (H1) Attitudes towards robotics are getting more (or remain) positive
with age. Not true: positive attitude falling behind with age.
SUMMARY
HuCER2023, Szombathely, 26-27th May, 2023

19. BALÁZS CZÉKMÁN PHD
CZEKMAN.BALAZS@PUSKASISKOLA.HU
EDUMOBIL.HU
PUSKAS.KISPEST.HU
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!