Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Journal of Information Technology Education: Research
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Aim/Purpose This study sought to understand the views of both teachers and students on the usage of humanoid robots as teaching assistants in a specifically Arab context. Background Social robots have in recent times penetrated the educational space. Although prevalent in Asia and some Western regions, the uptake, perception and ac-ceptance of educational robots in the Arab or Emirati region is not known. Methodology A total of 20 children and 5 teachers were randomly selected to comprise the sample for this study, which was a qualitative exploration executed using fo-cus groups after an NAO robot (pronounced now) was deployed in their school for a day of revision sessions. Contribution Where other papers on this topic have largely been based in other countries, this paper, to our knowledge, is the first to examine the potential for the inte-gration of educational robots in the Arab context. Findings The students were generally appreciative of the incorporation of humanoid robots as co-teachers, whereas the teachers were more circumspect, express-ing some concerns and noting a desire to better streamline the process of bringing robots to the classroom. Recommendations for Practitioners We found that the malleability of the robot’s voice played a pivotal role in the acceptability of the robot, and that generally students did well in smaller groups with the robot; teachers expressed concern that the children would become easily distracted should too many children be privy to one robot. Recommendations for Researchers Our results provide valuable recommendations for researchers in the area. We believe, there needs to be continued efforts in devising suitable methodo-logical assessment tools to evaluate student and teacher attitudes in the class-room particularly in the Arab world. We also advise researchers to focus on providing adaptive behavior in the context of educational robots. There are different distinct areas that need further clarifications and study based on our review. Impact on Society On a wider scale, the findings of this paper have a huge implication for the educational technology as the integration of robotics in education is one of the emerging trends in the area, particularly in the UAE. This study allows to answer questions related to attitudes and perceptions of both teachers and students toward educational robots in the UAE. Future Research Possible avenues of research in the area include focusing on the adaptive and natural behavior of robots in disciplines other than Mathematics as a means of successfully integrating robots in the classroom.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Informing Science Institute
Volume
20
First Page
245
Last Page
261
Disciplines
Education
Keywords
Arab culture, assistants, Emirati school, focus groups, humanoid robots, teaching
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Alhashmi, Mariam; Mubin, Omar; and Baroud, Rama, "Examining the use of Robots as Teacher Assistants in Uae Classrooms: Teacher and Student Perspectives" (2021). All Works. 4352.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/4352
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series