May I teach you? Students' behavior when lectured by robotic vs. human teachers

• Published in: Computers in human behavior Vol. 80; pp. 460 - 469
• Main Authors: Fernández-Llamas, Camino, Conde, Miguel A., Rodríguez-Lera, Francisco J., Rodríguez-Sedano, Francisco J., García, Francisco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude towards robots; Children; Educational robotics; Human behavior; Human robot interaction; Learning; R&D; Research & development; Robots; Social robotics; Student attitudes; Students; Teachers; Learning; Attitude towards robots; Human robot interaction; Educational robotics; Social robotics
• ISSN: 0747-5632; 1873-7692
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.09.028

Social robots have been and are currently being used in many projects, research initiatives and experiments, but we know relatively little about them compared to humans when performing a social task such as teaching. Using an experiment in which a robot and a human teacher were used for teaching computational concepts to a group of K-12 students, the main goal of this paper is not to analyze the scores obtained in the post-test performed, but to focus on the students' attitudes towards robots. In order to do this, a version of the NARS and RAS questionnaires, adapted for children, was used. The analysis of the results of these questionnaires considers differences between age groups and students lectured by a robot vs. a human teacher. We conclude that age is the main factor that affects students’ attitudes towards robots, although we also found other differences between the robot and the human teacher group.
•K12 children experiment comparing human teacher and robot teacher.•No significant differences between scores obtained by both groups of students.•Age is the main factor that influences results.