"Development of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking in kindergarten through Educational Robotics: a pilot study"

Communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking (4Cs) are regarded as contributors to well- being and success. Therefore, education needs to reform traditional teaching methods and enrich them with technology to promote students’ useful and lifelong 4Cs from an early age. Accordingly, Educational Robotics (ER) arises in existing literature as a means of developing children’s cognitive and social skills. Yet, research focused on kindergarten age exclusively investigating the potential positive impact of ER on young learners’ 4Cs is limited, short-term, using quite a small sample size and qualitative measurements. Hence, we present the results from a pilot study stemming from a research educational program called TINKER (Tangible INterfaces in Kindergarten and Educational Robots) exploring the benefits of robotics on kindergarteners’ 4Cs using the mixed research method. Based on our findings, all the 4Cs are enhanced via ER with creativity being promoted adequately. Moreover, age seems to affect kindergarteners’ development of 4Cs while gender does not. Finally, this pilot study depicts that long-lasting robotics courses can develop young learners’ communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. This work can inspire and facilitate educators’ and researchers’ attempts to create, implement, and evaluate robotic curricula in the field of 4Cs in kindergarten.