The purposes of this research were to 1) study the components and indicators of teacher competency in Mechatronics and Robotics, 2) study the current states, desirable states, and the needs for teacher competency development in the Mechatronics and Robotics Department, 3) design and development of teacher competency-enhancing programs in…

This paper reports findings from a study where regional, rural, and remote (RRR) educators were involved in a Queensland Government-funded 3-year Central Queensland (CQ) STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Cluster Project designed to enhance student learning opportunities. This project provided STEM professional development,…

In today's conditions, the needs of the labor market are changing in parallel with technological developments and the need for individuals trained in STEM is increasing. For this reason, it is a priority to increase the skills and awareness of teachers who will guide individuals trained in the field of STEM. In this study, a STEM training with…

It is becoming increasingly vital for the next generation of students to acquire problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaborative skills for them to be successful in the 21st century. The use of technology greatly bolsters the integration of these skills. Robotics, one of the many emerging arrays of technologies, presents learners with…

The purpose of the current study is to examine the effect of adapting the engineering design process to robotic coding, STEM, and the nature of science applications on teachers' self-efficacy towards engineering education and attitudes towards robotic coding. A weak experimental design with a single-group pre-test and post-test, one of the…

This research aimed to investigate the structural relationships among teachers' computational thinking (CT), design thinking (DT), robotics teaching beliefs, and robotics pedagogical content knowledge (RPCK). A total of 98 in-service and pre-service teachers who participated in a robotics teaching professional development workshop served as the…

In-service teachers' professional development regarding technology adoption in education is often focused on only one specific technology. To maximize the utilization of technologies, teachers need to be able to leverage different technologies seamlessly. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is one of the most important frameworks…

To enhance how educators use robotics to support the development of STEM and 21st century competencies, we report findings from focus groups and interviews with 133 elementary teachers and 46 elementary students, 19 video-recorded classroom observations, and a teacher survey from Ontario, Canada. We find that teachers use robotics in a variety of…

Educational robotics is a very important instrument because it provides an active learning environment and allows learners to acquire 21st century skills. Teachers need to use this instrument in teaching the science of robotics as well as in helping students master the subject and gain experience. This study aims to reveal pre-service teachers?…

Integrating computer science (CS) into school curricula has become a worldwide preoccupation. Therefore, we present a CS and Robotics integration model and its validation through a large-scale pilot study in the administrative region of the Canton Vaud in Switzerland. Approximately 350 primary school teachers followed a mandatory CS continuing…

The aim of this paper is to bring the voices of teachers to the foreground and provide insight into the collective aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development in primary schools, as perceived by science and technology teachers themselves. Through narrative inquiry in a retrospective and situated perspective, the narratives of the…

Integration of technology in schools rests on effective teacher education programmes that help teachers create new teaching and learning methods and adopt them for classroom use. Social learning processes play a key role in this, but there is a lack of understanding of their role in technology adoption and in evidencing them in teacher education…

Computational thinking (CT) has become central to introducing digital artefacts for educational use. However, little is known about implementing CT in the mathematical school curriculum, and many educational staff members have not been introduced to CT in their initial training. Introducing CT in an educational setting calls for interventions that…

This paper aims at extending the understanding of principal leadership in support of teachers' development of robot-based pedagogy for students in a cross-school professional learning community (PLC) of Hong Kong's special education. Sixty representative teachers from over 30 special schools, that is 50% of the total number of special schools,…

Contribution: This paper presents a model for educational robotics tools and a corresponding set of heuristics for their development and evaluation specifically adapted to the needs and expectations in formal education settings. Background: The increased use of educational robots in classrooms, and the steadily growing number of alternatives from…