Model of the Competences in Educational Robotics

Nataliia V. Morze

1 a

and Oksana V. Strutynska

2 b

Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, 18/2 Bulvarno-Kudriavska Str., Kyiv, 04053, Ukraine

National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, 9 Pyrohova Str., Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine

Keywords:

Educational Robotics, STEAM Education, Competences, Competences in Educational Robotics, Computer

Science Teachers.

Abstract:

The current state of development of robotics as an applied industry shows its intensive development. As a

result, there is a growing demand for robotics specialists because of an urgent need for specialists to develop,

design and program robots. This contributes to the popularity of robotics as an educational trend in Ukraine

and around the world. The introduction of educational robotics as a part of STEAM education is a pow-

erful step for development of students’ soft skills, training for the implementation of real socially signiﬁcant

projects, formation of practical value of theoretical knowledge, scientiﬁc world outlook and successful life in a

digital society as a whole. Taking into account the trends in the development of robotics as an applied industry

and educational trend, there is a need in training pre-service teachers to make them able to teach children edu-

cational robotics. In this regard, there is the issue of determining the structure of competences in educational

robotics for teachers and ways of their development. The research proves that pre-service computer science

teachers are the readiest to teach educational robotics in secondary schools. The article is devoted to the issues

of developing a model of competences in educational robotics for teachers, as well as their formation in pre-

service computer science teachers. The effectiveness of the model of competences in educational robotics is

conﬁrmed within the process of teaching disciplines of educational robotics for pre-service computer science

teachers.

1 INTRODUCTION

The current stage of science-and-technology develop-

ment is characterized by the growing popularity of

robotics and increasing the use of robots. Analysis

of global trends in the robotics industry shows (Stru-

tynska, 2019a):

• Growth in the production of industrial, service

and domestic robots. According to International

Federation of Robotics (IFR), stock of industrial

robots increased by 12% (about 2.7 million units)

in 2019. Sales of service and domestic robots in-

creased by 34% in 2019 and by 15% in 2020 (IFR

International Federation of Robotics, 2020);

• Accelerated growth of industrial robot production

in the period from 2019 to 2021 (according to IFR

estimates, the rate will accelerate to 14% on aver-

age per year);

• Introduction of robotic mechanisms and complex

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automation of production in many areas of social

activity (industry, military, space, automotive, avi-

ation, medicine, services, domestic life, etc.);

• Development of so-called Smart Factories as one

of the components of the Industry 4.0 concept,

the main idea of which is the development and in-

tegration of automated production, data exchange

and production technologies into a single self-

regulating system with minimal or no human in-

tervention in the production process. Smart Fac-

tory is a factory where the equipment is automated

and controlled by a computer. The equipment can

receive feedback on the state of the object in phys-

ical space using sensors;

• Acceleration of production automation (accord-

ing to research by the World Economic Forum

(WEF), the ratio in the division of labor “human-

robot” will be signiﬁcantly changed (by 2025) to-

wards robotics – up to 52%;

• Increasing the interest of the world’s largest com-

panies in robotic startups. In particular, in early

2014, Google has acquired eight companies en-

Morze, N. and Strutynska, O.

Model of the Competences in Educational Robotics.

DOI: 10.5220/0010933300003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 495-505

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

495

gaged in intelligent robotics;

• Growing demand for specialists in the robotics in-

dustry in general, as there is already an urgent

need for specialists to develop, design and pro-

gram robots.

As of today, industrial robots and integrated au-

tomation of production are in demand in many areas

of social activity (Morze et al., 2018b):

• Industry (robots for painting, welding robots,

robots for cutting metal, etc.);

• Agriculture (agricultural robots for harvesting and

picking, weed control);

• Military industry (military robots, intelligence

robots);

• Medicine (microscopic robots for use in micro-

surgery, robots-couriers in hospitals);

• Aircraft (unpiloted robots-airplanes);

• Space industry (self-propelled vehicles based on

robotic systems);

• Service sector (robots for help people with special

needs);

• Domestic life (robots-vacuum cleaners).

Especially robotics play important role for agri-

cultural needs. It is quickly becoming an exciting

high-tech industry, drawing new professionals, new

companies and new investors. The technology is de-

veloping rapidly, not only advancing the production

capabilities of farmers but also advancing robotics

and automation technology. Robots pick apples,

gather strawberries, harvest lettuce and strip away

weeds. Drones gather aerial images that help farmers

quickly assess crop health. And robotic greenhouses

are sprouting up thousands of miles away from tra-

ditional farmland regions, growing vegetables in the

backyards of high-consumption urban markets. It all

comes at a time when growers face a costly, long-term

labor shortage and — with the global population ex-

pected to rise from 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in just

over 30 years — food demand is poised to rise signif-

icantly (Gossett, 2021).

Robots change the way we live and work. This

also means that there is already an urgent need for

specialists to design, construct and program robots.

Thus, the above shows the rapid development of

robotics, which in turn causes the need in appropriate

training of qualiﬁed professionals for this ﬁeld. This

contributes to the popularity of robotics as an educa-

tional trend in Ukraine and in the world.

Paper goals are: to characterize educational

robotics as a trend of STEAM education; to develop

a model of competences in educational robotics for

teachers; to identify ways to develop competences in

educational robotics for pre-service computer science

teachers.

2 EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS AS

PART OF STEAM EDUCATION

STEM education is becoming one of the most impor-

tant educational trends among educators in Ukraine

(Midak et al., 2021; Morze et al., 2018a, 2019; Se-

merikov et al., 2021; Strutynska and Umryk, 2019;

Valko and Osadchyi, 2021).

STEM education (Science, Technology,

Engineering, Mathematics) is a trend in educa-

tion, under the conditions of which the science

component (with the use of innovative technologies)

is strengthened in the curricula.

The importance of involving young people in

STEM training is also shown by a research conducted

in the EU in 2018 at the initiative of the World Eco-

nomic Forum under the Digital Transformation Ini-

tiative. The research identiﬁes seven key technologies

that are projected to have the greatest impact on indus-

trial transformation in the near future (Digital Trans-

formation Initiative In collaboration with Accenture,

2018) (ﬁgure 1):

• Artiﬁcial Intelligence;

• Autonomous Vehicles;

• Big Data Analytics and Cloud;

• Custom Manufacturing and 3D Printing;

• IoT – Internet of Things / Connected Devices;

• Robots and Drones;

• Social Media and Platforms.

All these technologies are related to digital com-

petence, technical competence and STEM. It should

also be noted that 3 of the 7 above technologies are

directly related to robotics, namely: Autonomous Ve-

hicles, Internet of Things and Connected Devices,

Robots and Drones (ﬁgure 1).

This indicates that the demand for specialists in

STEM professions will continue to grow, including

workers in the robotics industry. To implement this, a

high-quality STEM subject training is needed (math-

ematics, physics, technology, engineering, program-

ming, etc.).

However, in many parts of Europe, employers

have difﬁculty recruiting people with the right level of

STEM skills, especially IT professionals. In addition,

the latest PISA (Program for International Student

Assessment) data show that one in ﬁve 15-year-olds in

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

496

Figure 1: Technologies that transform the industry in the near future (Digital Transformation Initiative In collaboration with

Accenture, 2018).

Europe is functionally illiterate in reading, math and

science (Strutynska and Umryk, 2019).

One of the possible ways to involve young peo-

ple in STEM subjects is to add to the exact sci-

ences the so-called component of Art. Therefore, re-

cently STEM education includes disciplines related

to creativity and art, united by the general term Arts

(STEAM – STEM and Arts).

According to Edel (Edel, 2017), an attempt to

intensify education only in the direction of science

without the parallel development of Arts-disciplines

may lead to the fact that the younger generation

will lose the skills of creativity. For example, Mas-

sachusetts has passed legislation that takes into ac-

count not only the level of students’ performance of

standardized tests, but also the extent to which each

school’s curriculum enhances student creativity, the

so-called “creativity index”.

Robotics is one of the promising areas of mod-

ern STEAM education (Morze et al., 2018c; Osad-

chyi et al., 2021). Educational process with robotics

provides students with the opportunity to solve real

life problems that require knowledge of STEAM dis-

ciplines, in particular (Morze et al., 2018b):

• mathematics (spatial concepts, geometry for un-

derstanding the methods of robot movement);

• physics (electronics, principles of sensors opera-

tion that constitutes the basis of robots);

• technology and design (design of devices, parts of

robots, their design);

• ICT (programming of robotics systems).

Nowadays, increased attention is paid to robotics

as to applied science, including its educational and

developmental potential. This has created a new trend

in education: educational robotics.

Educational robotics is a crossdisciplinary area of

students’ learning. Its process integrates the knowl-

edge of STEM subjects (physics, technology, math-

ematics), cybernetics, mechatronics, and informat-

ics. Teaching educational robotics corresponds to the

ideas of advanced training (learning the technologies

that will be needed in the future) and allows students

of all ages to be involved in the process of innovation,

or scientiﬁc and technical creativity (Morze et al.,

2018b).

In Ukraine, the development of educational

robotics within the educational process occurs at the

concept level, in the teaching of computer science and

ICT, in extracurricular education, but for this time

there is no systematic approach. Therefore, the is-

sues of importance are the introduction of robotics in

the educational process of secondary and higher edu-

cation as one of the areas of STEAM education, de-

velopment of appropriate curricula for students, train-

ing of pre-service teachers who will teach educational

robotics, development of relevant competences in ed-

ucational robotics (Strutynska, 2019a; Morze et al.,

2018c).

3 COMPETENCES IN

EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS

FOR TEACHERS

3.1 Components of the Competences in

Educational Robotics

Preparing of today’s youth to the design, program-

ming and use of robots and robotic systems is associ-

ated with the requirements of today, namely the emer-

gence of new professions in the ﬁeld of robotics and,

consequently, the need for appropriate specialists:

• operator of multifunctional robotic systems;

Model of the Competences in Educational Robotics

497

• robot designer (in particular designers of indus-

trial and children’s robotics, medical and home

robots);

• designer of neuro-interfaces for robot manage-

ment;

• designer of “smart” houses;

• unmanned aerial interface designer;

• service engineer in robotics;

• robotics programmer;

• medical robot operator;

• drone operator;

• drone engineer;

• teacher of robotics;

• builder of “smart” roads, etc.

Taking into account that robotics already plays an

important role in various areas of social activity and

that its role will increase in the future, it is necessary

to prepare the current generation of students for this.

This needs updating the content of school and uni-

versity education in accordance with today’s require-

ments. Therefore, today the issues of introduction of

robotics in the educational process of higher educa-

tion institutions (as a mandatory component of train-

ing pre-service teachers) are of particular importance.

The same opinion is shared by Anisimova et al.

(Anisimova et al., 2020): “. . . the key discipline in

the content of training teachers for STEAM educa-

tion should be “Educational Robotics”. Kushnir et al.

(Kushnir et al., 2020) note that “. . . introducing the

Educational Robotics course for future teachers is an

important part of their professional training”.

Thus, the development of pre-service teachers’

competences in educational robotics is a topical issue

of today.

Competence approach plays a special role in

higher education while the training of qualiﬁed spe-

cialists. Its use makes it possible to update the con-

tent of education and ensure that education meets the

needs of modern economy and civilization.

Below are the most important studies devoted to

the question of determining the components of com-

petencies in robotics, including education, their struc-

tures and models.

Eguchi (Eguchi, 2014) notes that the teaching

of educational robotics contributes to the formation

of pupils and students of the so-called 21 Century

Skill (21 Century Skill Framework (Battelle for Kids,

2019)), which include:

• Core Subjects (English, World languages, Arts,

Mathematics, Economics, Science, Geography,

History);

• 21st Century Themes (global awareness; ﬁnan-

cial, economic, business and entrepreneurial lit-

eracy; civic literacy; health literacy);

• Learning and Innovation Skills (creativity and

innovation skills, critical thinking and problem

solving, communication and collaboration skills);

• Information, Media and Technology Skills (infor-

mation literacy, media literacy, ICT);

• Life and Career Skills (ﬂexibility and adaptabil-

ity, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-

cultural skills, productivity and accountability,

leadership and responsibility).

Goloborodko (Goloborodko, 2012) considers

robotics as a resource for the formation of key com-

petencies, namely information, communication, edu-

cational and cognitive and competence in the ﬁeld of

health. Kushnir et al. (Kushnir et al., 2020) also note

that “robotics helps build core competencies. This af-

fects the formation of a scientiﬁc worldview and the

corresponding system of thinking”.

Morze et al. (Morze et al., 2018c) indicate that

robotics classes affect the development of students’

mathematical, scientiﬁc and technical competences,

computer science competences, as well as social com-

petences.

Buzhinskaya et al. (Buzhinskaya et al., 2017)

deﬁne a set of competences needed for the success-

ful application of robotics in the future professional

activity of students. The most important of them

(in the researchers’ opinion) are development of pro-

grams for robotics management, mastery of methods

of testing and debugging programs for robotics man-

agement, methods of assessing the quality of robotics

management programs, etc.

In 2014–2015, a research project “Remake Learn-

ing Competencies” involve more than 100 experts in

various subjects, teachers of formal and non-formal

learning and program managers (Remake Learning

Competencies, 2015). In the course of the research,

seven working groups were created to develop dif-

ferent competency structures, as well as to identify

cross-cutting competencies (Cross-Cutting Compe-

tencies).

As part of the “Remake Learning Competencies”

project, a group of researchers proposed seven com-

petency structures: Career Readiness, Coding &

Gaming, Design & Making, Media Making, Robotics,

STEAM and Early Childhood Education. Each of the

developed structures consists of knowledge, skills and

abilities.

The structure of competences in the ﬁeld of

robotics (proposed by the project) includes (Remake

Learning Competencies, 2015):

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

498

• knowledge in Robotics (Circuits, Design Process,

Materials & Their Characteristics, Programming

Languages, Systems Thinking);

• skills in Robotics (Circuit Board Construction,

Communication, Designing for Human-Robot In-

teraction, Engineering, Ethics, Fabricating, Pro-

gramming);

• dispositions in Robotics (Collaboration).

Analysis of researches devoted to the deﬁnition

and formation of competences in educational robotics

shows that today there are no common approaches

to developing a model of competences in educational

robotics, in particular for teachers. Thus, the solution

to this issue is relevant and open to research.

Analyzing the components of the above structures

and models of competences in educational robotics,

it should be noted that they include components of

STEAM competences. Their inclusion in the structure

of competences in educational robotics is logical, be-

cause educational robotics is a trend which integrates

knowledge of many disciplines, including computer

science, environmental science, mathematics, tech-

nology and others.

One of the characteristic features of educational

robotics is learning through project activities. While

working on robotic projects, students perform re-

search according to the task. Thus, taking into ac-

count also the fact that research activity is a charac-

teristic feature of STEAM subjects, research compe-

tence will be one of the components of competences

in educational robotics.

An important component of educational robotics

training is programming, which is one of the main

stages of a robotics project. In addition, the design

stage of a robotic system is impossible without mod-

eling of its components, which are often performed

with the use of special software. These components

belong to the digital competence.

The formation of components of digital compe-

tence in the process of learning robotics is also men-

tioned in (Sedina and Soboleva, 2018). Buzhinskaya

and Grebneva (Buzhinskaya and Grebneva, 2018) de-

scribe the development of ICT competence of pre-

service computer science teachers in the process of

teaching robotics. Thus, the individual components

of digital competence will be part of the competences

in educational robotics.

Competences in educational robotics, in addition

to knowledge, skills and abilities, include activity and

/ or value-motivational components, which include

critical and creative thinking, the ability to work in

a team, solving complex problems, etc. A signiﬁcant

number of these components are characteristics and

personal traits that belong to soft skills. Thus, soft

skills (Varava et al., 2021) are also parts of the com-

petences in educational robotics.

Thus, based on the analysis of the above groups of

competences, the authors identiﬁed the components

of competences in educational robotics, which in-

clude:

• integral STEAM competence (in the ﬁeld of

robotics);

• research competence;

• digital competence;

• soft skills.

3.2 Model of the Competences in

Educational Robotics for Teachers

For successful teaching of educational robotics, it

is necessary to develop appropriate competences in

teachers who will be able to professionally and cre-

atively prepare students for future professions related

to the robotics industry. Thus, it is necessary to add a

professional-and-pedagogical component (to the con-

sidered components of educational robotics), which

will include knowledge of the laws, principles, meth-

ods of teaching-and-learning of educational robotics

and the relevant skills and abilities. Such a compo-

nent is methodological competence (M

at¸

a, 2011).

Thus, based on the analysis of the components and

taking into account the above considerations, the au-

thors developed a model of competencies in educa-

tional robotics for teachers (ﬁgure 2).

4 PREPARATION OF THE

PRE-SERVICE COMPUTER

SCIENCE TEACHERS TO

TEACH OF THE

EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS

Robotics is an effective means of engineering educa-

tion for schoolchildren around the world. Therefore,

the task of pedagogical universities is to train teach-

ers to work with students in accordance with current

trends, standards and requirements of today, includ-

ing pre-service teachers who will teach educational

robotics. In this regard, the following issues are be-

coming of high importance. Among these issues are:

training students of pedagogical universities who will

be able to teach children educational robotics, and,

accordingly, the introduction of robotics in the ed-

ucational process of higher education institutions as

Model of the Competences in Educational Robotics

499

Figure 2: Model of competences in educational robotics for teachers.

part of the training of pre-service teachers (Strutyn-

ska, 2019b).

Summarizing the experience of practicing educa-

tors who teach educational robotics and research the

preparation of pre-service teachers for its teaching,

our previous research and experience, the authors be-

lieves that in the absence of a separate educational

standard in Ukraine “Robotics”, pre-service Com-

puter Science teachers are the most ready to teach

educational robotics in secondary schools.

Strutynska (Strutynska, 2019b) substantiates in

detail the feasibility of training pre-service teachers

of computer science to teach educational robotics.

Similar considerations are also shared by other re-

searchers. For example, Vegner (Vegner, 2013) be-

lieves that the most appropriate discipline for the

training of specialists in the ﬁeld of robotics is com-

puter science. In his opinion, it is necessary to start

training the future robotics engineer from the school

time. However, this problem is rather difﬁcult to solve

within the traditional set of physical and mathemati-

cal disciplines.

Buzhinskaya and Grebneva (Buzhinskaya and

Grebneva, 2018) note that computer science is a lead-

ing discipline for teaching educational robotics. It

should be taught by computer science teachers, re-

spectively, as part of the school computer science

course.

Zhaldak et al. (Zhaldak et al., 2020a,b) developed

the educational and professional training programs

for bachelors and masters in the specialty 014.09

“Secondary education (Computer Science)” with a se-

lective module of disciplines “Educational robotics”

at the Faculty of Informatics of the National Pedagog-

ical Dragomanov University. This is just to train pre-

service computer science teachers, who will teach ed-

ucational robotics. In the absence of a separate educa-

tional ﬁeld “Robotics” according to the state standard

of education, pre-service computer science teachers,

who have chosen a selective unit of disciplines “Edu-

cational Robotics”, receive an additional qualiﬁcation

“head of the robotics club”.

Students of computer science specialties of ped-

agogical university study disciplines of the selective

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

500

module “Educational Robotics”. These disciplines

combine theoretical, applied and practical aspects of

STEAM education. The main content lines of educa-

tional robotics are:

• Basics of robotics

• Introduction to educational robotics

• Programming of robotic systems

• Physical basics of robotics

• Mathematical basics of robotics

• Methods of teaching educational robotics

The experiment, which was conducted three aca-

demic years (2017–2020), involved 106 students who

studied in the specialty 014.09 “Secondary education

(Computer Science)”. During each subsequent aca-

demic year, changes were made to the structure and

content of training disciplines in educational robotics

(ER): 2017–2018 – 28 students (educational robotics

training took place according to the content of mod-

ules of other disciplines – 16 students of the Bache-

lor program and 12 students of the Master program);

2018–2019 – 32 students (the training took place

both in terms of modules of other disciplines (18 stu-

dents of the Bachelor program) and in terms of the

content of the selective block of disciplines “Edu-

cational Robotics” (14 students of the Master pro-

gram)); 2019–2020 – 46 students (the educational

robotics training took place within the framework

of majors courses (23 students of the Bachelor pro-

gram) and according to the content of the selective

block of disciplines “Educational Robotics” (23 stu-

dents of the Master program)). This selection of ex-

perimental groups was due to: a small number of

students in groups who were trained in the relevant

ﬁeld of study; homogeneity of the conditions of the

experiment (availability of hardware for educational

robotics, the same number of hours for training rele-

vant courses, and the same type of software and me-

thodical support); and the dynamics of development

of relevant technologies in the robotics industry.

Diagnostics of the levels of building of ER com-

petences of pre-service teachers of computer science

for each group was carried out in two stages: by as-

sessing the levels of building of certain competence

components at the beginning and after the formative

stage of the experiment.

At the ﬁnal stage of the experiment, there was

a self-assessment of ER competences developed in

the participants of the experiment. Besides that,

the expert assessment of robotics projects (including

STEAM and online projects) has been performed. It

was done also with the participation of lecturers, prac-

ticing teachers, and leaders of educational robotics

clubs (as experts). In some cases, mutual evaluation

took place. Examination and evaluation of projects

were carried out on the basis of the criteria developed

by the authors of the study for assessing the ﬁnal tasks

and projects, as well as criteria for assessing the levels

of competence components building.

The results of the experiment showed that the

quality of training and the level of the building ER

competence components of pre-service teachers of

computer science increased owing to the proposed

method (table 1).

2 Thus, according to the results of the experiment,

there is an upward trend in development of ER com-

petences of pre-service teachers of computer science,

which conﬁrms the effectiveness of teaching students

according to the developed individual components of

the methodical system. In particular, the number of

students with basic, sufﬁcient and high level of gen-

eral ER competences has increased: with basic – in-

creased by 7.36% (8 students); with sufﬁcient – by

14.34% (15 students); with high – by 8.87% (9 stu-

dents). At the same time, the number of students with

a low level of these competences building decreased

by 30.57% (32 students).

The experience of teaching students in the disci-

plines of the selective unit “Educational Robotics”

showed the following. The training not only pro-

vides students with relevant knowledge of educational

robotics (introduction to robotics, basic robotics mod-

els, design and construction programming of robotic

platforms, environments for programming of robotic

platforms, organization of tests of ready designs of

robots (testing of robots, etc.), but also promotes for-

mation in them of corresponding professional compe-

tences in educational robotics.

Besides, students have improved such key compe-

tencies as follows while studying:

• Ability to learn (fast learning);

• Civic competence;

• Social competence;

• Environmental literacy;

• Entrepreneurship.

Areas of formation of competences in educational

robotics for pre-service computer science teachers

are:

1) formal training (relevant disciplines in educa-

tional robotics, provided by the educational pro-

gram);

2) practical component of training (project activity

of students);

3) non-formal learning (attending master classes by

practicing teachers, robotics leaders, mentors and

Model of the Competences in Educational Robotics

501

Table 1: Students’ percentage who have reached the stated levels of building of the relevant ER competence components.

ER competence components Experiment stage

Competences’ levels

low basic sufﬁcient high

Integral STEAM competence at the beginning 22.64% 64.15% 11.32% 1.89%

Integral STEAM competence at the end 8.49% 43.40% 34.91% 13.21%

Research competence at the beginning 73.58% 23.58% 2.83% 0.00%

Research competence at the end 35.85% 50.94% 10.38% 2.83%

Digital competence at the beginning 28.30% 48.11% 21.70% 1.89%

Digital competence at the end 9.43% 38.68% 33.96% 17.92%

Methodical competence at the beginning 86.79% 11.32% 1.89% 0.00%

Methodical competence at the end 16.04% 60.38% 16.04% 7.55%

Soft skills at the beginning 31.13% 45.28% 15.09% 8.49%

Soft skills at the end 19.81% 35.85% 29.25% 15.09%

General ER competences at the beginning 48.49% 38.49% 10.57% 2.45%

General ER competences at the end 17.92% 45.85% 24.91% 11.32%

trainers, attending seminars, festivals, robotics

competitions, self-education using MOOC, the-

matic groups and social media channels, etc.).

5 CONCLUSIONS

The introduction of educational robotics as a part of

STEAM education is a powerful step for development

of students’ soft skills, training for the implemen-

tation of real socially signiﬁcant projects, formation

of practical value of theoretical knowledge, scientiﬁc

world outlook and successful life in a digital society

as a whole.

Based on the analysis of the world trends in the

robotics industry and development of robotics as an

educational trend, systematic analysis of scientiﬁc,

methodological and the Internet sources regarding the

research problem, generalization of these data, own

experience and previous research (2015–2020), the

conclusions are drawn about:

• growing demand for robotics specialists;

• increasing the popularity of robotics as an educa-

tional trend in Ukraine and around the world;

• urgency of training teachers to make them able to

train future professionals in the ﬁeld of robotics;

• relevance of the introduction of educational

robotics in the educational process of higher ed-

ucation institutions as part of the training of pre-

service teachers;

• importance of developing of the competences in

educational robotics for teachers;

• effectiveness of the developed model of the Com-

petences in educational robotics for teachers.

The practical experience of training pre-service

teachers (who will teach of educational robotics)

shows that pre-service computer science teachers are

the readiest to teach educational robotics in secondary

education. The research conﬁrms the effectiveness

of training pre-service computer science teachers for

teaching educational robotics in secondary educa-

tion institutions developed by educational and profes-

sional programs of the specialty 014.09 “Secondary

education (Computer Science)” with a selective mod-

ule of disciplines “Educational robotics”.

Further research of the author will be aimed

at identifying ways to develop educational robotics

competences under the conditions of blended and dis-

tance learning.

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APPENDIX

Table 2: Description of the components of competences in educational robotics (ER) for teachers.

ER competence ER com-

petence

components

Knowledge Abilities and skills Personal traits, ways

of thinking

Integral STEAM

competence

(in the ﬁeld of

robotics)

Mathematical

competence

basic knowledge of fun-

damental mathematics

sections; mathematical

tools in the relevant ﬁeld

of knowledge

ability to use mathemat-

ical methods in the pro-

cess of ER problem solv-

ing

algorithmic thinking,

systematic thinking

Integral STEAM

competence

(in the ﬁeld of

robotics)

Physical

competence

knowledge of microelec-

tronics; understanding

the principles of oper-

ation of simple mecha-

nisms and mechanical

transmissions

ability to work safely

with electronic circuits,

microcontrollers and

robotic platforms in

accordance with the

project

responsible atti-

tude to technology,

understanding and

compliance with

safety measures when

working with robotic

platforms

Integral STEAM

competence

(in the ﬁeld of

robotics)

Engineering

and tech-

nological

competence

knowledge of the stages

of the engineering design

process at the level sufﬁ-

cient for the implementa-

tion of projects related to

robotic systems

ability to design robotic

systems

engineering thinking,

technological literacy,

systematic thinking

Integral STEAM

competence

(in the ﬁeld of

robotics)

Competence

in science

basic knowledge of envi-

ronmental sciences fun-

damental sections at the

level sufﬁcient for the im-

plementation of projects

related to robotic systems

ability to use knowledge

of environmental sci-

ences (including their

interdisciplinary links)

within the process of ER

problem solving

Integral STEAM

competence

(in the ﬁeld of

robotics)

Design com-

petence

basic knowledge in the

ﬁeld of design at the level

required for the design of

robots and their parts

ability to create the de-

sign of robots and their

parts, including using 3D

technology

design thinking

Research compe-

tence

knowledge about the

stages of the process of

creating and implement-

ing a training robotics

project

ability to identify the

problem; ability to for-

mulate a research task

and determine ways to

solve it; activity plan-

ning; ability to research,

compare, verify and ex-

perimentally conﬁrm re-

search results; system

analysis, system evalua-

tion

engineering thinking,

the ability to solve

problems in a non-

standard way, under-

standing other points

of view in solving

problems; ability to

apply knowledge in

different situations

Digital compe-

tence

Competence

in modeling

knowledge of methods of

analysis, research and de-

velopment of robotic sys-

tems models

ability to develop models

of robotic systems; abil-

ity to adopt ICT for com-

puter modeling of robotic

systems

systematic thinking

Continued on next page

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504

Table 2: Description of the components of competences in educational robotics (ER) for teachers (cont.).

ER competence ER com-

petence

components

Knowledge Abilities and skills Personal traits, ways

of thinking

Digital compe-

tence

Competence

in algorith-

mization and

programming

basic knowledge in the

ﬁeld of algorithmization;

basic knowledge of one

or more programming

languages; features of

their use for program-

ming robots and robotic

systems

ability to develop al-

gorithms of robots and

robotic systems, ability

to program and test them

algorithmic thinking,

systematic thinking

Digital compe-

tence

Information

technology

competence

knowledge of the char-

acteristics of robotic

platforms and the cor-

responding software;

basic knowledge of the

technologies operation

principles based on the

IoT

ability to select robotic

platforms in accordance

with the tasks, ability to

work with emulators of

robotic platforms; ability

to use technologies based

on the IoT to develop

robotic systems

responsible atti-

tude to technology,

understanding and

compliance with

safety measures when

working with robotic

platforms and IoT

Digital compe-

tence

Distance

learning

competence

knowledge about the

principles of functioning

of online environments

for robotics training,

distance learning sys-

tems, video conferencing

systems; knowledge

of features (including

psychological) concern-

ing the organization of

independent work of

students in the conditions

of distance learning

ability to work with

online environments

for robotics training;

ability to organize the

educational process

using online environ-

ments; ability to design,

create digital educational

resources (including dis-

tance learning courses)

with ER

understanding the

principles of safe

work in online

environments; com-

pliance with safety

measures when work-

ing on the Internet,

ethics; independence,

motivation; psycho-

logical stability to

work in distance

learning

Methodical com-

petence

knowledge of the prin-

ciples of cognitive man-

agement; understanding

the importance of the

introduction of ER as

a trend of STEAM ed-

ucation for the forma-

tion of students’ scien-

tiﬁc worldview; knowl-

edge of patterns, princi-

ples, methods of teaching

and learning of ER as a

trend of STEAM

ability to plan the educa-

tional process with ER;

development, implemen-

tation and analysis of

STEAM projects based

on the use of robotic sys-

tems; creation of learning

environments and condi-

tions for effective learn-

ing of ER, evaluation of

ER learning outcomes

motivating students to

learn ER

Soft skills Communication and

teamwork skills, solve

complex problems, abil-

ity to make informed

decisions, resource

management

critical thinking,

creative thinking,

responsibility, mo-

tivation of team

members, open mind-

edness, emotional

intelligence

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505