Research On The Impact Of Task Types And Pairing Fusion Degree On Students' Cognitive Load In Robotics Courses

At present,the advantages and value of robotics education make it widely popular at home and abroad.However,the embodiment of value requires the support of teaching methods.According to the exciting study,collaborative learning can fully demonstrate the characteristics of robotics education in order to cultivate students'communication skills,however,there are still some problems in collaborative learning during practical teaching,for example,free-riding and fixed roles due to task allocation.In order to solve problems,a particular way of collaborative learning called pair learning which draw lessons from the characteristics of pair programming in the field of programming such as learning in pair,assigning and switching roles is worth exploring.The pilot study had confirmed that pair learning showed great educational potential in robotics education.However,the studies of pair learning only focuses on students' achievement and attitude and not pay much attention to students'cognitive,for example,cognitive load.Cognitive load theory mentions that the purpose of instructional design is to reduce the cognitive load of students.Does pair learning have a positive impact on the cognitive load of students during learning robotics education?According to existing studies,there are important factors affecting the cognitive load in both the cognitive object(object)and the cognitive subject(student).In the cognitive object,many studies indicate that the compatibility of group members has a high positive impact on the effectiveness of collaborative learning.However,there is still a lack of research on the impact of compatibility on students' cognitive load.Then,does the pair compatibility affect the cognitive load of the students in the pair learning?Based on existing studies,we assume the low pair compatibility can reduce the cognitive load of students.In the cognitive subject,according to previous studies,the task type is also an important factor affecting students' cognitive load.Pair learning is not a omnipotent method and has its scope of application.In this study,we hypothesized that pair learning has different applicability in different task types and has different effects on students' cognitive load.Therefore,this study takes the task type and pair compatibility as two interrelated important factors influencing students'cognitive load,and explores the possible degree of influence.To solve this question,this study carried out quasi-experimental research at the Wuqiao Experimental Primary School,in Wuxi,Jiangsu Province in the fall semester of 2017.The study subjects were 76 students in the fifth grade of the elementary school.All the students were randomly divided into pairs and learning robotics according to the principle of pair learning.The robotics equipment is the detecting robot of the Ultimate 2.0 10-in-1 robot kit.We conducted a prior knowledge quiz before this experiment,and the result showed they were almost novices in robotics.Students must complete three robotic tasks in this study,including the closed task(simplest),the semi-open task(more difficult)and the open task(most difficult).And a pair compatibility survey and a cognitive load measure were conducted at the end of each robotics project.This study confirms the difficulty gradients of the three task types by analyzing the student's achievement and analyzes the difference between high-compatibility group and low-compatibility group(the students are divided into high-compatibility group and low-compatibility group according to the pair compatibility score)to further explore the impact of task type and pair compatibility on the cognitive load of students in robotics education.The results of this study showed that for the three task types,the students'cognitive load showed no significant difference.In the face of the most difficult open tasks,students do not get a higher cognitive load,indicating that pair learning in robotics education can effectively reduce the cognition load in the face of difficult tasks,however,there is no advantage in the simple task.According to the pair compatibility,the high-compatibility group got lower cognitive load than the low-compatibility one.The effect of pair compatibility on cognitive load in the pair learning was confirmed.Therefore,teachers should pay more attention to the cognitive of students in the practice of robotics education to improve students' ability and knowledge level synthetically and adopt appropriate collaborative learning strategies to guide students to actively participate in learning activities.