Designing Human–Robot Interaction Algorithms for Developing Metacognitive Skills

ABSTRACT In today's technology, robots are involved in all life aspects. Therefore, it is inconceivable that robots will not affect the field of education either. Robot simulators can help developers test and improve intelligent systems before putting them in natural environments. In this study, the use of robots in education has been discussed in relation to the development of metacognitive abilities. A simulation environment was prepared for testing and developing the methods that follow learning models in human–robot interaction. The simulation is about a humanoid robot making an engineering lesson plan. It has been tested on a group of academicians consisting of 64 (32 persons in the experimental group and 32 persons in the control group) persons working in Computer Engineering in the 2021–2022 academic year. The application process includes an 8‐week course period. The data as the result of the test were collected from both groups using the MCQ‐30 scale and from the experimental group by the metacognitive strategy questions after preparing the engineering lesson plans made by robot simulation. Evaluation of the data showed that the robot simulation was effective in the metacognition scores of the people in the experimental group, and the success level of the people in the control group did not change significantly, considering the results of the pretest and the posttest.