Students’ Perceptions about the Use of Minimalist Robotic Games in Geography Education

Year 2020, , 584 - 595, 31.12.2020

Soon Sıngh Bıkar , Sabariah Sharif Rosy Talın Balan Rathakrıshnan

https://doi.org/10.33403/rigeo.739383

Abstract

Recent trends show the number of students studying geography in upper secondary school is declining. Among the reasons identified is that geography is perceived as a very tedious and difficult subject to study. With the rapid development of technology in the twenty-first century, the use of multi-media tools and technologies in education have given a new dimension to the process of teaching and learning. One of the most widely used technological tool is robots. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the perceptions of high school students who are using minimalist robotic games for teaching and learning activities in Geography. Qualitative research methods were used to collect the research data. In total there are 15 groups of students participating in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Carnival; each group consists of three to six members who have created a minimalist robot game for the subject of Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences. However, there are only two groups of students consisting of two male and four female students who created games for Geography. Therefore, a purposive sampling method was used to select students from these two groups. Six students who participated in the development of a minmalist robotinc game for Geography in the STEM education carnival were selected and interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of the carnival. The data analysis of the interview shows five out of six students had a very positive perception of using minimalist roboticss in Geography education. In addition, this study also showed that the use of minimalist roboticss in the teaching and learning of Geography also changed the interest and attitudes of students towards learning Geography. The application of minimalist robotics also enhances students' intrinsic motivation to study Geography. The implications of this study suggest that minimalist robotics games are an alternative technology teacher can integrate into teaching and learning activities for Geography in schools to enhance students’ interest in learning about this subject.

Keywords

Minimalist Robotic, Geography, interest, intrinsic motivation

References

• Aminudin, A. (2014). Kesan interaksi media pengajaran, kaedah belajar, dan tahap pencapaian pelajar terhadap tahap kefahaman konsep gerakan melalui tugasan POE. (Doctoral dissertation). Universiti Utara Malaysia
• Artvinli, E. (2010). The contribution of geographic information systems (GIS) to geography education and secondary school students' attitudes related to GIS, Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice; 10, (3), 1255-1292. Artvinli, E. (2017). What is innovative geography teaching? A perspective from geography teachers, Journal of Education and Training Studies, 5, (6), 9-23.
• Artvinli, E. (2010). Teaching styles of geography teachers, Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, 9 (33), 387-408.
• Balan, R., Samsudin, A., Singh, S., & Juliana, J. (2017). Job preferences among marginalised and non-marginalised youths: A multi-ethnic study in sabah. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25, 55-65
• Bravo, F. A., Gonzalez, E., Di Blas, N., & Bonarini, A. (2019, June). Robots at school: supporting humanities teaching through robots-based storytelling. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) (pp. 162-175).
• Chame, H. F., Mota, F. P., & da Costa Botelho, S. S. (2019). A dynamic computational model of motivation based on self-determination theory and cann. Information Sciences, 476, 319-336.
• Ching, Y.-H., Yang, D., Wang, S., Baek, Y., Swanson, S., & Chittoori, B. (2019). Elementary school student development of STEM attitudes and perceived learning in a STEM integrated robotics curriculum. TechTrends, 63(5), 590-601.
• Conrad, J., Polly, D., Binns, I., & Algozzine, B. (2018). Student perceptions of a summer robotics camp experience. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 91(3), 131-139.
• Grbich, C. (2012). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction (pp. 10-11). London: Sage.
• Hong, J. E. (2016). Social studies teachers' views of ICT integration. Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO), 6(1), 32-48.
• Jackson, A., Mentzer, N., & Kramer-Bottiglio, R. (2019). Pilot analysis of the impacts of soft robotics design on high-school student engineering perceptions. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 29(5), 1083-1104.
• Juniarti, R. D. (2014). Pengembangan media mobile learning dengan aplikasi schoology pada pembelajaran geografi materi hidrosfer kelas x SMA negeri 1 karanganyar. (Doctoral dissertation). Universitas Sebelas Maret.
• Leoste, J., & Heidmets, M. (2019). The impact of educational robots as learning tools on mathematics learning outcomes in basic education. Digital Turn in Schools—Research, Policy, Practice (pp. 203-217). Singapore: Springer.
• Lytridis, C., Bazinas, C., Papakostas, G. A., & Kaburlasos, V. (2019, April). On Measuring Engagement Level During Child-Robot Interaction in Education. In International Conference on Robotics and Education RiE 2017 (pp. 3-13). Cham :Springer.
• Malaysian Ministry of Education. (2017). Malaysia education blue print 2013-2025. Kuala Lumpur: Permodalan Nasional Berhad.
• Musumba, M. A. (2019). Integration of ınformation communication technology (ICT) ın the instruction of geography in secondary schools in Matungu, Kakamega-Kenya (Doctoral dissertation) Moi University
• Rose, J., & Johnson, C. W. (2020). Contextualizing reliability and validity in qualitative research: toward more rigorous and trustworthy qualitative social science in leisure research. Journal of Leisure Research, 50(4), 432-451. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1722042
• Singh, S. S. B., Rathakrishnan, B., Sharif, S., Talin, R., & Eboy, O. V. (2016). The effects of geography ınformation system (GIS) based teaching on underachieving students' mastery goal and achievement. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 15(4), 119-134.
• Singh, S. S. B., Rathakrishnan, B., Talin, R., & Kiflee, D. N. A. (2018). Pengintergrasian sistem maklumat geografi (GIS) dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran gegrafi: Kajian kes di sekolah bestari luar bandar di sabah. e-Bangi, 14(2), 112-122.
• Steegen, A.; Hasendonckx, F.; Cock, M. (2018). Can an Interactive learning path on a tablet pc counter misconceptions on the formation of clouds and wind? Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO), 8 (1), 53-73. Retrieved from http://www.rigeo.org/vol8no1/Number1Spring/RIGEO-V8-N1-3.
• Sulistianingsih, E. (2019, June). The use of youtube as a geography learning source in high schools. ın 3rd ınternational conference on current ıssues in education (ICCIE 2018). Atlantis Press
• Taylor, K., & Baek, Y. (2018). Collaborative robotics, more than just working in groups. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 56(7), 979-1004.
• Zaharin, N. L., Sharif, S., Singh, S. S. B., Talin, R., Mariappan, M., Mohanaraj, N., . . . Suppiah, P. (2020). Promoting students’ ınterest, attitude and ıntrinsic motivation towards learning STEM through minimalist robot education programme. International Journal of Service Management and Sustainability, 4(1), 41-66.
• Zhang, J., Lai, I. K. W., & Xu, W. (2020). Motivating students' learning in science and technology by using robots. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 27(4), 395-410.
• Zhang, J. L., Xu, W. W., Yang, T., Lai, I. K. W., & Wong, L. P. (2018, July). Robots–stimulating İnterest and motivating learning in science and technology. In 2018 International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET) (pp. 226-229). IEEE.
• Zhong, B., & Xia, L. (2020). A systematic review on exploring the potential of educational robotics in mathematics education. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 18(1), 79-101.