Influential Factors in Teachers’ Adoption of Robotics Activities Within STEM Education

The current study aims to identify the factors influencing the integration of robotics activities into STEM education. In addition, teachers’ sense of competence, relatedness, and autonomy regarding the integration of robotics activities in STEM classes after they participated in robotics training was examined. Sixteen middle school teachers were interviewed and answered a questionnaire to examine their perceived influential factors and their relationship to teachers’ reported self-determination in integrating robotics activities. The findings identify three main factors that influence the integration of robotics activities into STEM education: attitudes and affect (e.g., teachers’ sense of interest in robotics), support (e.g., principal support), and learning conditions (e.g., robotic kits and the number of students in the class). These factors are related to the needs defined by Self-Determination Theory: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. The support factor is related to the sense of relatedness, which is associated with social contacts and the development of friendships within the robotics community. In addition, the support factor is related to the sense of autonomy, which is the extent to which the teachers receive autonomy from their principal to implement robotics activities. The attitudes and affect factor is related to a sense of competence and self-efficacy to implement these activities. Satisfying these needs may encourage teachers to adopt robotics activities into their lessons.