Teachers’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Augmented Reality and a Socially Assistive Robot in Education
摘要
The educational field faces significant challenges, including low student motivation and engagement difficulties. Emerging educational technologies, such as Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) and Augmented Reality (AR), offer promising solutions by enhancing interactivity, engagement, and knowledge acquisition. While both technologies have been individually explored in education, their combined use remains underexamined, and understanding teachers’ attitudes toward their integration is crucial for effective implementation. This study investigates primary and secondary school teachers’ perceptions of SAR, AR, and their combined use in classrooms. A total of 82 educators attended familiarization sessions on SAR and AR before completing a questionnaire assessing their attitudes, acceptance, and perceived barriers to adoption. Results revealed a significant correlation between teachers’ perception of the benefit of the robot’s attention allocation on the student’s work and their attitude towards the combined use of SAR and AR (p < 0.001). Additionally, teachers with positive attitudes toward AR and SAR separately were more likely to support their combined use (p < 0.001 for AR and p < 0.001 for SAR). Teachers’ anxiety towards SAR was negatively correlated with their intention to use it. It is also worth mentioning that younger teachers showed more favorable attitudes compared to their older colleagues (p < 0.05). Studies on teachers’ attitudes are important since they are the ones who are adopting and incorporating new technologies in their teaching and also who need to accept technology before engaging the students with it. Future research should explore long-term effects on both teacher adoption and student learning outcomes.