This study was conducted to improve the understanding of the intelligent service robots in kindergarten education by examining a process wherein the teachers at Girin Kindergarten accepted the functions of the intelligent service robot in early child...
This study was conducted to improve the understanding of the intelligent service robots in kindergarten education by examining a process wherein the teachers at Girin Kindergarten accepted the functions of the intelligent service robot in early childhood education and identifying the characteristics of the interaction between and the robot. The research questions for this study are as follows.
1. What was the teachers’ attitude toward the intelligent service robot for early childhood education ?
2. How do children interact with the intelligent service robot ?
The subjects of this study were 21 three-year-old and 28 five-year-old kindergarten students and two teachers from Girin Kindergarten in Euijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do, who were the first in the world to use the intelligent service robot for early childhood education. The observation of a total of 79 classes, including the first observation (40 times twice a week) and the second observation (39 times once a week) was carried out for the study. The observation was conducted during the period between when the students and teachers arrived at the kindergarten and left from there. A full-day class was excluded from the observation. Formal or informal interviews were conducted in the process of collecting the data, when the understanding or interpretation of teachers was needed. The children were also interviewed in order to examine their opinion or intention regarding relevant activities. The data were collected through the researchers’ participation in 79 classes interviews, documents, pictures, videotaping, and audio recording, from December 2008 to July 2009. The participation results and interviews were documented in field diaries, and the collected data were categorized and analyzed.
They also integrated the robot in their educational activities through trial and error and were uncomfortable with the new medium of . , the teachers were disappointed because the robot did not sufficiently carry out the expected functions, including teacher’s task sharing or educational data supply. They were also worried that the children would use the robot to play computer games. A while after the introduction of the robot, however, the teachers got over their concerns regarding the use of the robot, and they overcame their initial apprehensions regarding the misuse of the robot after observing the children use it. When the teachers and children became familiar with the functions of the robot, they used it in diverse ways during class, and the teachers reorganized the functions of the robot in order to apply them in an integrated manner.
Second, the children personified the robot and recognized it as their friend, regardless of their ages. This recognition was related to the interaction between the children and the robot. In the interaction between the children and the robot, both the three-year-old and five-year-old children engaged in physical contact with the robot and occasionally tried to control its functions. Five-year-old children even engaged in conversations with and cared for the robot. In the child-robot interaction, the children searched their favorite functions and used them repeatedly, but also lost interest in its repeated . Regardless of their interest, however, the attendance or portfolio organization functions, . With regard to the interaction between peers, there were frequent quarrels regarding the use of the robot at first, but they were solved by the intervention of peers or teachers, and the children who were familiar with the use of the robot helped their friends; this was considered as cooperative behavior. Children usually used the robot with their friends. Three-year-old children used it with random friends, while five-year-old children used it with their close friends. The robot was a medium for both the three-year-old and five-year-old children to find new friends. Peer group activities were experimented and new friendships were created as a result of the use of the robot.
The results of this study showed that the teachers’ training with regard to the use of the robot and information sharing via the establishment of a teachers’ network were essential in helping the teachers adopt the use of robots as a medium of instruction. The most important aspect was the development of high-quality educational curricula wherein the children’s age and the characteristics of their levels and the teaching and learning methodology, which is different from the existing multimedia contents, are considered. It was found that the children’s personification of the robot as their friend and a consideration of the child-robot interaction can lead to the improvement of children’s social and mental development as well as the promotion of their proactivity and learning motive. For this purpose, the continuous improvement of robot technology, including voice recognition, visual recognition, and autogenous movement, is essential. In particular, the study results indicated that long-term support and prolonged study rather than prejudiced expectations are required with regard to the introduction of the robot to early childhood education.