Effects of a human-robot collaborative teaching approach on preschoolers’ social-emotional competence and learning behaviors

Abstract

Preschoolers' social-emotional competence is key to their long-term academic success. Developing this competence requires meaningful social interactions and emotional support, which the conventional teaching (CT) approach may not fully provide. This study proposed a human-robot collaborative teaching (HRCT) approach to facilitate preschoolers' social-emotional learning (SEL). A human-robot collaborative teaching system was developed to foster preschoolers' social-emotional competence through collaboration between the humanoid intelligent robot and the teacher. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, 96 preschoolers with an average age of 4.6 years were recruited. Of these, 44 were randomly assigned to the experimental group, which utilized the HRCT approach, while 52 were assigned to the control group, which followed the conventional teaching approach. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of social interaction skills, emotion comprehension skills, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. Significant differences were also observed in the learning behaviors of preschoolers during activities related to social interaction, emotion comprehension, and interpersonal problem solving. Further analysis of the teacher's perceptions and reflections revealed that, despite some limitations of the robot, its anthropomorphic and embodied features effectively sparked preschoolers' interest and engagement. These features contributed to enhancing their social-emotional competence by simulating and practicing SEL processes.