The effects of educational robotic applications and design thinking activities on cognitive flexibility, scientific process skills and STEM attitudes of 7th grade secondary school students

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of educational robotic applications and design thinking activities on the cognitive flexibility, scientific process skills and STEM attitudes of 7th grade secondary school students. Within the scope of the research, the mixed research method in which qualitative and quantitative research methods are used together was taken as basis. In the quantitative dimension of the study, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group, which is one of the experimental models, was used. The qualitative dimension of the research was designed as a case study. The research was carried out with 7th grade students of two different secondary schools in the Battalgazi district of Malatya province in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample group for the quantitative dimension of the research consists of 134 students determined according to the convenience sampling method, and the study group for the qualitative dimension consists of 36 students determined according to the criterion sampling method. The study was carried out with three different groups, one control group and two experimental groups, in a period of approximately two months. In the scope of the research; The teaching of the force energy unit of the 7th grade science course was carried out by applying educational robotic applications to the experimental 1 group, design thinking activities to the experimental 2 group, and the methods and techniques specified in the official program to the control group. While the quantitative data of the study were collected with cognitive flexibility, scientific process skills and STEM attitude scale, the qualitative data were collected with semi-structured interview form and word association test. The dependent (related) groups t-test, one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) included in the statistical program SPSS 22 were used to analyze the collected data regarding the quantitative dimension of the study. In the analysis of the data collected regarding the qualitative dimension of the research, the content analysis method and concept networks created with the cut off technique were used. As a result of the research; It has been seen that educational robotic applications are effective in developing cognitive flexibility, scientific process skills and STEM attitudes, and it has been observed that students' cognitive structures about strength and energy have been enriched and they have experienced a positive conceptual change. This situation was supported by qualitative findings obtained through interviews. Most of the students stated that they liked the activities, they related the applications with daily life, the lessons were fun, they worked in collaborative groups, and they wanted robotics training sets to be used in their lessons in the future. In addition, some of the students stated that they found the applications confusing at the beginning of the studies, they had difficulties in the coding part and there were in-group discussions. Although there was no statistically and practically significant difference between the cognitive flexibility pre-test-post-test mean scores of the students participating in the design thinking activities, it had a positive effect on all other variables. This situation was supported by qualitative findings obtained through interviews. The students stated that their manual skills improved, they learned by having fun, they empathized, gained self-confidence, benefited from the activities, and they wanted the design thinking activities to continue in the future lessons. In addition, some students stated that they had difficulties in the prototyping phase and experienced incompatibility within the group. As a result, although both applications have similar effects on students, it has been concluded that educational robotic applications are more effective in terms of increasing cognitive flexibility skills and significantly higher contribution to scientific process skills than other applications. Based on all these results, suggestions were made to introduce, teach, and disseminate both applications and to take such studies into consideration while curricula are being prepared.