Leitbilder an der Schnittstelle von Technikentwicklung und Pädagogik : eine rekonstruktive Studie zu wahrnehmungs-, denk- und handlungsleitenden Vorstellungen vom Lehren und Lernen mit Educational Social Robots als Beitrag zur integrierten Forschung

• Visions at the intersection of technology development and education : a reconstructive study on perceptions, thoughts and action-guiding ideas about teaching and learning with educational social robots as a contribution to integrated research

Schaffrath, Scarlet La Shea; Ziefle, Martina (Thesis advisor); Zorn, Isabel (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : RWTH Aachen University (2023)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2023

Abstract

Future-related ideas about the individual, society and the technology itself are implicitly inscribed in technologies, but have so far hardly been researched, particularly in the context of education. Against the background of the digitalization of the educational sector, this work - located in the Science and Technology Studies - is dedicated to the question of which perceptions, thoughts and action-guiding ideas about teaching and learning with Educational Social Robots (ESR) can be identified among technology developers on the one hand and educational and therapeutic professionals as potential users of ESR on the other hand. The inclusion and comparison of the development and application perspective represents an attempt to meet the demand for integrated research, i.e. the inclusion of end users in technology development. Ideas are operationalized via the Leitbild concept, the concept of scripts and the understanding of metaphors from cognitive metaphor theory. ESR are understood as pseudo-social interaction partners that do not function as new learning content - as in STEM education - but rather add another side to the didactic triangle between teachers, learners, and the learning content, and could thus change the relationship between human teachers and learners. Based on interviews and group discussions and a qualitative-reconstructive study through a triangulation of a content analysis and a metaphor analysis, four Leitbilder and nine integrated metaphorical scenarios are presented. They point to a (1) individualization and (2) economization of teaching/learning processes using ESR and convey (3) a narrative of human professionals functioning as role models for technology development and (4) a narrative of the necessity of preparing learners for the digital future. While the first two Leitbilder are shared by developers and educators, the latter two are group-specific for the development (3) and application perspective (4). Regarding the concepts of (i) learning, (ii) teaching and (iii) ESR, nine metaphorical scenarios, representing visually coherent ideas of teaching and learning with or through ESR and the actors involved, can be identified,: The (1) sports, (2) path, (3) organic, (4) container, (5) work, (6 ) market, (7) construction, (8) spatial and (9) school metaphors. In addition to the different ideas about teaching and learning, the metaphorical scenarios also differ in terms of the intended distribution of roles between humans and machines, which are either understood as competing elements in the teaching/learning process - if ESR are conceptualized as (pseudo-)social interaction partners - or as supporting elements - if ESR are attributed a tool function. The reconstruction of metaphorical scenarios, like the already tried and tested identification of Leitbilder, appears to be compatible with Science and Technology Studies and future studies as it meets the requirements of (methods of) integrated research by taking into account potential blind spots in the technology development process. However, it is important to expand the range of methods in order to enable technologically lay people such as educational and therapeutic professionals to communicate their thoughts during the technology development process and to act with regard to the later application of the latest digital technologies.

Institutions

• Chair of Communication Studies [735410]