The Indeterminate Nature of Educational Robots and Young Children's Emergent Science Learning

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Approaches to Learning (San Diego)

Abstract

In this qualitative case study, we attempt to explore the indeterminate nature of educational robots and address the educational relevance of young children’s encounters with them through Taguchi’s (2010) lens of intra-active pedagogy. In our findings, we present the determinant forces and organic flow of the entanglements of three focal children and educational robots, and we conceptualize the properties of educational robots as improvisational and relational. Also, we demonstrate how the emergent events correspond to science learning. We suggest re-thinking what counts as valid knowledge and modes of learning in adopting educational robots in practices for young children, and we contribute to mapping out the invisible forces/effects and indeterminate and relational features of educational robots in the material context.

Authors

• Sung Eun Jung, The University of Arizona

• Kyunghwa Lee, University of Georgia - Athens