Interactions in the Wild: Student and Teacher Perceptions of Social Robots in Public Classrooms

Research on the use of social robots in education is growing rapidly, especially in areas related to autism-spectrum disorder students, language education, and coding, but other areas have not been well researched. Few studies actually attempt to test general robotic functioning in real-time classroom situations, such as under “in the wild” conditions. In addition, few studies have focused on early adolescents and the middle grades. In our chapter, we will summarize the findings from a naturalistic study of social robots for early adolescents. We detail how we introduced a “Pepper” unit into a project-based learning environment at a public middle school. Using reflective essays by teachers along with surveys and interviews with students, we highlight the potentials and drawbacks of using an advanced social robot compared to other common robotic tools used at this level (e.g., VEX kits, drones).