Title:
Research Trends and Features of Robotics Studies in Educational Technology and STEM Education: Data Mining on ERIC Sample
Author:
Emre Çam
Published:
Sakarya University Journal of Education, 12(3), 15 December 2022
Abstract:
In this study, publications in ERIC about Robotics, Educational Technology in Robotics (ET-in-Robotics), and STEM in Robotics (STEM-in-Robotics) have been reached through data mining. The reached studies were analyzed in terms of their release year, titles, abstracts, and ERIC descriptions. In this process, it aimed to put forward its research trends and features. The analysis of the 1339 publications that were published between 01/01/1973 and 31/12/2021 and available in ERIC has been made by using several Python libraries. These analyses are presented in the form of tables and word clouds. The results showed that the number of publications available in ERIC was the highest between 2017 and 2021. Also, in the last five years, the number of publications available on Robotics in ERIC has gradually increased. In addition, the words "learning", "robotics", and "technology" are important for all three topics whereas the words “child”, "science", “programming” and "teacher" for ET-in-Robotics, and the words "school" and "engineering" for STEM-in-Robotics come to the fore. Moreover, the most frequently assigned descriptor by ERIC staff to these publications has been found to be "teaching methods". When evaluated in general, in the STEM-in-Robotics field, more specific topics were focused, and robotic activities are taken as a type of instructional technology while in the ET-in-Robotics field robotic activities were taken as a type of educational technology. As a result, a publication that will serve as a guide for new research in the field of robotics has been presented.