Catching Up: An Observational Study of Underserved Primary and Secondary Student Mindsets When Introduced to Educational Robotics

Abstract

Student attitudes toward STEM subjects decline as they progress through primary and secondary school, making interventions even more critical for students in these age groups. Integrating educational robotics into the classroom has been shown to increase student perceptions of STEM topics while also having many other positive learning benefits such as increased mastery of STEM concepts and STEM degree achievement. Furthermore, research on mindset in school-aged children found that students who held growth mindset beliefs had higher learning outcomes, persistence, and self-esteem compared to students who held fixed mindset beliefs. In this observational study, an educational robotics curriculum was implemented across grades 3–8 in an urban private school consisting primarily of underserved, minority students. The same robotics kit was used across all ages with differentiation in the STEM labs taught to different ages. The technology teacher—the principal investigator for this study—recorded results from a growth mindset survey and journaled about student reactions to the robotics curriculum as the school year progressed. Observations about student prior experience, attitudes, self-beliefs, and mastery are used to draw insights on the effects of educational robotics for underserved student populations. As the body of research on STEM learning through educational robotics expands and robotics increasingly becomes considered a standard in primary and secondary education, it is critical to consider the needs of students encountering robotics for the first time and how to support and grow their attitudes and mindsets. experience with robotics. Through observation and journaling, patterns emerged related to student mindset on ability. This study aims to provide initial findings on mindsets of traditionally underserved students through a brief survey as well as an analysis of the teacher’s observations. As studies have found that mindsets are meaningful for minority and low-income students (Aronson et al., 2002; Claro et al., 2016), investigating how the students at STBCA perceive their ability when introduced to educational robotics can provide insights into future practices to benefit students.