Robot Programming to Empower Higher Cognitive Functions in Early Childhood
This chapter describes a new approach of educational robotics (ER) aimed at empowering higher cognitive functions in school. As robot programming requires mentally planning complex action sequences before the motor act, ER may promote several crucial cogn
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Robot Programming to Empower Higher Cognitive Functions in Early Childhood Maria Chiara Di Lieto, Chiara Pecini, Emanuela Castro, Emanuela Inguaggiato, Francesca Cecchi, Paolo Dario, Giuseppina Sgandurra, and Giovanni Cioni
Abstract This chapter describes a new approach of educational robotics (ER) aimed at empowering higher cognitive functions in school. As robot programming requires mentally planning complex action sequences before the motor act, ER may promote several crucial cognitive processes underlying learning. During robot programming, the child has to first set the target, second sequentially think through the steps needed to achieve that target, then verify the goal, and eventually reset the plan. All these mental acts involve executive functions (EFs), which are complex higher cognitive processes, crucial in early development because they are the base for abstraction and logical reasoning, decision-making, sequential thinking, and maintaining and updating information in memory and problem-solving. Robot programming may empower EFs not only by improving top-down cognitive control, working memory, and inhibition skills but also by placing the child, more than other passive thought technologies, in front of “objects to think with” in a group setting that stimulates the use of EFs for social and emotional purposes. Recent studies demonstrating, through a rigorous and scientific approach, the effect of ER on EFs in typical and atypical development will be discussed. Keywords Educational Robotics · Robot Programming · Executive Functions · Early Childhood
M. C. Di Lieto · C. Pecini · E. Inguaggiato Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] E. Castro · F. Cecchi · P. Dario The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] G. Sgandurra (*) · G. Cioni Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 L. Daniela (ed.), Smart Learning with Educational Robotics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19913-5_9
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Introduction Educational robotics (ER) refers to a new learning method based on the programming, designing, and/or assembling of robots through play and hands-on activities. ER was developed at the end of the 1960s thanks to the integration of theories on pedagogical learning and cognitive development, such as constructionism of Seymour Papert and Jean Piaget (Papert 1980; Piaget and Inhelder 1966), but also on theories of the relationship between the social world and cognitive development, such as the social constructivism of Lev Semënovič Vygotskij and the social learning theory of Albert Bandura (Bandura 1986; Vygotsky 1980). Mos
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