The Effect Of Role Assignment And Learning Style On Paired Learning In Primary School Robotics Curriculum

Cooperative learning was commonly used in robotics education as a teaching strategy,and has been proved to be an effective learning model in teaching experiments.Although cooperative learning has certain advantages in robotics education,some problems exposed in practice deserve our attention,e.g.,conflicts of interest due to unequal operation opportunity,free-rider issue,and diffusion of responsibility.In order to avoid the above problems,this study used pair learning model that was derived from the basic idea of pair programming to narrow the team size,assign roles and rotate roles.However,in addition to programming,the content of robotics education includes other knowledge,like building and designing.It means that programming only involves the operation of computer,while the robotics education involving the operation both computer and robot.Therefore,it needs to explore whether the role assignment of pair programming is appropriate for the robotics education.In addition,learning style is also an important factor in the cooperative learning and pair programming learning model.Students with different learning styles may have different learning performance when they play different roles.Based on the above summary,this study focuses on the impact of roles assignment and learning style on pair learning in robotics education.In terms of roles assignment,the experiment constructed two strategies.The first model(Driver-Navigator Pair,DNP),imitating traditional pair programming,is that one student operates computers and robots while his/her partner guides it,and then switches their roles.The second model(Software-Hardware Pair,SHP),considering the features of robotics education,is that one student takes charge of software(programming a robot)while his/her partner operates hardware(building a robot),and then switches their roles.In terms of learning style,students’ learning styles were divided by active/reflective dimensions of the Felder and Silverman scales.Two learning styles could form three learning style pairs,including active-active,active-reflective,and reflective-reflective.Then,a 2*3 multi-factor experimental design was implemented.The teaching empirical experiment was carried out by the author in Wuxi primary school.The participants were students of the fifth grade of the two classes.These students have not studied robotics courses before,nor have the basic knowledge or skills of programming.There was no significant difference between the two classes on the basis of programming.After a semester robotics course,66 students were assessed for their learning achievements,attitude towards robotics,engagement,compatibility,mental efforts,and attitude towards pair learning.The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference among different pairs in the above six indicators,and there was no significant interaction between roles assignment and learning styles.The difference of achievement is not statistically significant between DNP and SHP.The reason for this result may be that little design work need to do except for some simple tasks such as wiring and connection due to the good integration of the robot and simple course content.Hence the operation in SHP could like the operation in DNP.The impact of learning style in pair learning is also not statistically significant.The main reason may be that the joint effect of pair learning bridges the difference in learning performance aroused by learning style.In other words,pair learning makes all partners,including reflective students,take an active part in cooperative learning,which in turn reduces disadvantage of some learning styles.In addition,combined with the experience in the teaching process,the author put forward some instructional suggestions effectively implementing the pair learning in robotics education.