Ra Ximhai (Sep 2019)
USE OF ROBOT AS A LUDIC PROPOSAL FOR THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS IN CHILDREN'S CLASSROOMS
Abstract
The use of the Botnifacio robot is presented as a playful proposal to teach mathematics (arithmetic) in the pre-school level at two schools in Guasave Sinaloa during 2018. Through a method of investigation-action and a phenomenological construction we found that all the children keep the attention in the activity of Botnifacio, even if they do not have the robot in their hands, since it is geared to the ludic dimension. We highlight how novel the robot is for children. We observed three dimensions: psychological, intellectual and sociological. Regarding the psychological sense we generally observed that the children presented as much emotion associated with the robot as some of their toys with which they want to interact directly, they show a better attitude. It is very motivating for children, who present an affective relationship directly. The motivation was also in the sense of wanting to keep on learning with the robot. An important matter is that the robot invites children to play and have fun, and not to the tedium nor to the suffering in the children. Another matter is that there are conflicts regarding the use of the robot, but this can be a part of the children’s learning on tolerance, sharing, knowing how to negotiate, knowing how to talk and knowing how to control themselves and not to fight. Teachers appear as mediators of conflicts. In the intellectual sense the identification of the numbers and its basic arithmetical operations are part of the interaction and the language that children learn. We observed that most children were able to interpret this mathematical language by arguing the results emitted by the robot. In this semiotic phenomenon the numbers acquired the category of symbols of a language that the children learned to differentiate. From the sociological sense the children worked in small groups and in a cooperative way they planned to carry out some operations. The interaction became cooperative rather than competitive. It also strengthened the skills of communication, learning to share and the promotion of friendship. The children not only showed interest in the robot, they also used it as a mechanism of socialization. We recommended that 1) it is necessary to improve the design of the robot to make it more resistant of the rude treatment that it can receive from the children, 2) children must have a period for the familiarization with the medium, before expecting the best results, 3) develop a curriculum in which the aspects in which a robot can intervene are considered.
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