The effects of robotic coding education on the problem solving skills of secondary school students and the views of the students about robotic coding activities

Robotic coding education is critical in our country in recent years as in other countries. It is thought that Robotic Coding education provides students with many skills such as problem-solving, creative thinking, cooperative work and motivation increasing effects of robotic activities. The main aim of this study is to provide coding education to students with the help of new technologies called robotics, to contribute to the development of the skills that expected from 21st-century individuals such as critical thinking and creative thinking skills, especially by problem-solving skills, by programming with robotics in extracurricular hours. In order to achieve this aim, a five-week, single-group experimental study was designed to investigate the effects of robotic coding education on problem-solving skills of secondary school students and to understand students' views on robotic coding activities. The participants of the study consisted of 26 volunteer students of Gebze Emlak Konutları Secondary School in Kocaeli. The research method is based on mixed design research design. In the implementation phase, qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously and analyzed separately. Robotic Preliminary Questionnaire, Robotic Satisfaction Test, Problem Solving Inventory in Children and Efficacy Perception Scale were used as well as observation and focus group interviews were conducted. According to the analysis of the collected data, five-week robotic coding training has made a significant and positive contribution to the problem-solving skills of the students. Another result of the research was that the students who participated in the research were satisfied with the activities; their pre-thoughts about robotics were positive; they loved and enjoyed the activities.