An exploratory study of young children's spatial skills in the context of educational robotics

An Exploratory Study of Young Children's Spatial Skills in the Context of Educational Robotics This qualitative study explored young children's spatial skills in the context of educational robotics. The study aimed to investigate two research questions: (1) How do 5-6 years-old pre-school children's spatial skills emerge when they engage with programmable robot toys? (2) How do 5- to 6-year-old pre-school children use spatial vocabulary while interacting with programmable robot toys over a semester? Data were collected through video recordings of young children participating in an 11-week robotics curriculum that included both unplugged and plugged-in activities. These video recordings were analyzed through multimodal analysis with the lens of embodied learning. Five themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) Robotic activities encourage preschool children's use of spatial skills while planning their robotic programming; (b) Designing tangible materials for plugged-in robotic activities supports preschool children's use of spatial skills; (c) Robotic activities enable preschool children to use spatial skills while solving problems in the programming phase; (d) Unplugged robotic activities that focus on different spatial concepts prepare preschool children for plugged-in activities more; (e) Providing a context, robotic activities facilitate preschool children's frequent use of specific spatial vocabulary. The findings suggest that engaging with educational robotics in the context of embodied learning not only enhance preschool children's spatial skills but also enriches their spatial vocabulary.