The 21st century is the age of robots, an age in which we are witnessing the development of social
robots for education. In the future teachers will be required by the labour market to prepare students
for work with robotic technology and co-work and interact with robots. Initial teacher education
needs to follow the development of robots and prepare students and teachers in applying robotic
technology in teaching. In the review study, we aim to identify how robotic technology is applied in
classrooms on different educational levels and subjects. We performed a review of the Web of Science
Database for the period between 2006 and 2018. The analysis categories included: the educational
level and research participants who experienced social robot activities, subject areas, outcome
types and robot-learner interaction time. We also examined the research design and publication
source. Findings indicate that the educational-pedagogical aspects in the studies often represent
more a vehicle, rather than a final goal of integrating robots into teaching practice. The studies
reviewed focus mostly on mixed human-robot interaction (HRI) and educational-pedagogical
outcomes. Robotic learning activities are prepared in the function of research goals, and not for
the introduction of robots into regular teaching practices. They engage a small number of students
in a diversity of learning contexts. Robot-learner interaction takes place primarily as a unique
experience or as several short-term ones, during fragmented activities that rarely approach the time
unit of the lesson. Robots carry out short, detailed tasks in classrooms for which lengthy studies and
preparations have been required. The novelty of this work is in focusing also on (1) The demarcation
between the focus of studies on educational-pedagogical outcomes; educational-pedagogical and
HRI outcomes; HRI outcomes; (2) study of the robot-learner interaction time dimension.
Author : Andreja Istenic Starcic
Attitudes towards inclusion by Slovenian teachers in the context of findings from other countries
The inclusion of children with special needs into the mainstream regular elementary school classes
brings a professional challenge to teachers. A review of articles on teachers’ attitudes towards
inclusion published during last three decades was conducted. The review of research findings
indicates that effective implementation of inclusion depends on the teacher’s attitude to inclusion,
which is found to be linked to the teacher’s gender, years of work experience in teaching children
with special needs, qualification of teachers, and the type of special need. A survey was conducted
in 2013 on a representative sample of Slovenian elementary school teachers who teach in 7th, 8th
or 9th class and have in their class at least one student with special needs. The findings indicate that
teachers have a neutral attitude to inclusion. Teachers believe that they are insufficiently qualifie in
teaching children with special needs, and that they need more training in this particular area. They
are most in favor of inclusion of children with deficiencies in certain areas of learning, children
with chronic disease, and children with speech and language disorders. They disfavor the inclusion
of children with mental development disorders. They hold a neutral attitude to the use of ICT in
inclusive education, and that the use of ICT contributes more to a child’s cognitive, than social
development. They believed that they do not have sufficient competences in ICT supported learning
and assistive technologies. The findings of a survey of Slovenian teachers have shown neither a
link between a teacher’s attitude to inclusion and the teacher’s gender, years of work experience,
experience in teaching children with special needs, nor the teacher’s opinion of his/her own teaching
competences for inclusion. The findings are discussed in light of related studies in other countries.