The effect of educational robot in-service training on teachers' acceptance, education attitude and it use self-efficacy

Educational robotic applications have been studied frequently in recent years. In accordance with the rising trend towards educational robot applications, numerous products have been produced. The literature review reveals that there are studies in which educational robot products are integrated with educational processes and where many variables are measured. In order for educational robot applications to be successful, teacher proficiencies should not be disregarded. The reason is stated that the proficiency levels of teachers affect the learning in students. There is not sufficient evidence found in the literature regarding the proficiency of teachers on this matter. The aim of this research is to determine the attitude levels of teachers towards in-service training of those whom attended the in-service training of the block-based coding course with educational robots, self-efficacy levels in use of information technologies in education, and acceptance levels of in-class educational robot use. The research design is based on embedded mixed pattern from mixed method research designs. In the quantitative dimension of the research data collection tools of "Attitude Scale Towards in-service Training", "Information Technologies Use in Education Self-Efficacy Teacher Evaluation Form", and "In-Class Educational Robot Use Acceptance Scale", which is developed within the scope of this research, are utilized. In the qualitative dimension of the study, a semi-structured interview form consisting of 9 open-ended questions, prepared by the researcher, is used. In the qualitative dimension of the research data was collected from 9 teachers on a voluntary basis. Qualitative data were transferred to NVivo 12 program and encoded with content analysis method. The entered codes are grouped and the model is created. The study group of the research consists of teachers from various fields of study who have participated in the in-service training of Block-Based Coding Course with Educational Robots and in-service training of Block-Based Coding Course with Scratch, organized by the Provincial Directorate of National Education in 2018-2019 academic year. The sample created with the purposeful sampling method so that there are 48 teachers in the experimental group and 25 teachers in the control group. The experimental group is trained with Lego Mindstorms Ev3 and mBot products. The control group is trained with the Scratch 3 programming tool. Skewness and Kurtosis values has been examined for normality analysis. The data is analyzed by using arithmetic mean, standard deviation and independent sample t test. In order to determine the effectiveness of the experimental process, the similarity of experimental and control groups is investigated before the experimental process. As a result, the following main findings from the research are drawn. In comparison with Scratch, educational robot applications do not contribute significantly to teachers' attitudes towards in-service training, teachers' self-efficacy levels as using information technologies in education, as well as acceptance level of teachers' use of educational robots in the classroom. However, if factors are considered, educational robot applications contribute more to Basic Skill and technology factors. It is found that the teachers participating in the course have gained insight about the educational robot applications, so they have thought these applications should be used in learning since they have found them beneficial. During the educational robot application experiment, it is found that teachers have experienced difficulties especially in the coding process. Teachers give positive response on the use of educational robots in the classroom and they want to use them in their subjects despite the high costs. Also, the teachers who have attended the course find the block-based coding course with educational robots sufficient in terms of content and products, but find insufficient in terms of time. Lastly, teachers think the course has positive contributions to gaining programming skills and self-efficacy in using information technologies and they have participated in in-service trainings for personal and professional development.