The effects of robotics programming on secondary school students' problem-solving skills

Abstract

Robotics programming is a type of coding that combines mechanics and programming. Robotics technology facilitates coding instruction. Coding improves students' problem-solving skills. However, studies from the literature show that some teaching methods do not have a positive effect on coding skills. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of robotics programming training on secondary school students' problem-solving skills. For this purpose, the study was conducted as a pretest - posttest quasi-experimental model without control group. 30 6^th grade students (12 boys and 18 girls) from three secondary schools participated in this study. Activities were conducted with the VEX IQ Robot Kit during nine weeks. Before and after the process, problem-solving inventory and problem-solving skills perception scale were applied as pre- and post-test. As the scores obtained from the scales did not show a normal distribution, the difference between the pretest and posttest scale scores was examined by Wilcoxon signed rank test. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that robotics programming helped students to develop problem-solving skills.