This document discusses using educational robots to facilitate learning intentions and assessment. It provides the following key points: 1. Learning intentions should focus on what students are learning rather than what they have to do. They work best when negotiated with students. 2. Engaging students through discussion and effective questioning before setting learning intentions helps students take ownership of their learning. 3. Learning intentions are not always necessary or possible to establish at the start of a lesson. They may need to change based on how the lesson is going. The goal is improving student learning.

1. Learning Intentions and
Educational Robots
Dave Catlin
CEO Valiant Technology Ltd.
Constructionism 2016
1st – 5th Feb, Bangkok, Thailand
www.roamer-educational-robot.com

2. Turtle Type Robots

3. The Problem

4. Diversity
BBC Digi Zone 2014 Glasgow
Commonwealth Games
Kafuro School Project Uganda
Christ Hospital School,
West Sussex, England
Shanghai School
Project

5. Teaching – the ‘X’ Factor

6. Skill Matrix
Untrained Trained
New
User
Skilled
User
Teaching Skill
RoboticSkill

7. Gordon’s Competence
Ladder

8. ERA Principles
 Technology
• Intelligence
• Interaction
• Embodiment
 Student
• Engagement
• Personalisation
• Sustainable Learning
Educational Robotic Application Principles
 Teacher
• Pedagogy
• Curriculum and
Assessment
• Embodiment
• Practical
Catlin, D. and Blamires, M, (2010)
Constructionism, Paris

9. Curriculum and Assessment
Principle
Educational Robots can
facilitate teaching, learning and
assessment in traditional
curriculum areas by supporting
good teaching practice.

10. Inside the Black Box
The
Classroom
Paul Black
Dylan Wiliam
Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment
Resources
Educated
Students

11. AfL – Assessment for
Learning
• Learning Intentions
• Success Criteria
• Feedback
• Quality Interactions
• Peer and Self-Assessment

12. AfL and Robots
• Catlin, D. (2012). Maximising the Effectiveness of Educational
Robotics through the Use of Assessment for Learning
Methodologies. 3rd International Conference on Teaching
Robotics, Teaching with Robotics. Riva La Garda, Italy.
• Catlin, D. (2014). Using Peer Assessment with Educational
Robots, Peer Review. Peer Review, Peer Assessment and
Self Assessment in Education, ist International Workshop,
collated with the 13th International Conference on Web-based
Learning ICW. Tallinn, Estonia: Springer Verlag.
• Catlin, D., Csizmadia, A. P., OMeara, J. G., & Younie, S.
(2015). Using Educational Robotics Research to Transform
the Classroom. RiE 2015: 6th International Conference on
Robotics in Education. Yverdon-les-Bains.

13. National Turtle Project
• 21 School Districts
• Sept 1988 to Dec
1989
• 350 Turtle Robots
• Programmed with
LOGO

14. ERA: Engagement Principle
Through engagement Educational Robots can foster
affirmative emotional states and social relationships
that promote the creation of positive learning attitudes
and environments, which improves the quality and
depth of a student’s learning experience.

15. Methodology
• Review of AfL
information
• Teacher experience
and perspective
• Joe Bower Blog: Stop
writing the objectives
on the board.

16. A Confusion of Terms
• Objectives
• Learning Intentions
• Outcomes
• Rubrics
• Grade Related
Criteria
From Assessment and
Learning Pocketbook
by Ian Smith.

17. Number Grab
• Hidden strategies and
ideas.
– Ok to travel backward
– Turn acute angles
– Evaluate options using
distance point ratios
– Do time speed
calculations
Creative Commons Citation: Roamer Educational Robot Activity
written by Dave Catlin and Alan Coode for Valiant Technology Ltd.
www.roamer-educational-robot.com

18. Lesson Objectives
• Make strategic problem solving decisions
based on arithmetical operations and
estimations involving integers.
• Practice the rapid recall of number facts
and arithmetical operations on integers.
• Practice estimating distance, turn and
time.

19. Engagement is Essential
What we say to dogs!
Based on Gary Larson Far Side Cartoon

20. What Children Understand
What dogs hear!
Based on Gary Larson Far Side Cartoon

21. Learning Intentions
• Focus on learning and not what students
have to do
• The child’s perspective on what they are
learning
• Should be negotiated with the students

22. The Teacher is a Facilitator

23. Good Intentions Bad Results

24. Messing Up Learning
Intentions

25. About Learning Intentions
• Assessment becomes ‘formative’ when
teachers use the evidence to adapt their
teaching to meet student learning needs.
• Teachers lead formative assessment, but it is
something students do.
• A narrow Learning Intention is not always
enough to direct student learning.
• Creating a good Learning Intention is more
craft than science.
• You need to make sure writing Learning
Intentions does not become a dull routine. .
Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative
Assessment. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

26. Student Ownership of
Learning
Maple Cross Star Wars Project

27. Engagement is the Key
Maple Cross Star Wars Project

28. Effective Questioning
Strategies
Generating, Planning, Producing
Checking, Critiquing
Differentiating, Organising, Attributing
Executing, Implementing
Interpreting, Exemplifying, Classifying,
Summarising, Inferring, Comparing,
Explaining
Recognising Recalling
Adapted from Questioning Technique
Gordon Pope, Teacher’s Pocketbooks, 2013

29. Back to Number Grab

30. At Last Learning Intentions
Learning Intentions Lesson Objectives
• Make strategic problem
solving decisions based
on arithmetical operations
and estimations involving
integers.
• Practice the rapid recall
of number facts and
arithmetical operations on
integers.
• Practice estimating
distance, turn and time.
• We’re finding out how to
get the biggest number
• I’m getting better at sums

31. Delivering Letters
Gravemeijer, K. (1997) Mediating Between Concrete
and Abstract, in Learning and Teaching Mathematics,
An International Perspective, Editors, Nunes,T.and
Bryant, P. pub Psychology Press.

32. Sinbad’s Treasure

33. Do You Always Need a
Learning Intention?

34. Spacecraft Rescue

35. Different Learning
Intentions

36. Multiple Learning Intentions

37. Managing Lessons

38. Summary
• Lesson Objectives relate to the curriculum
• Engage students before establishing Learning Intentions
• Help students to generate Learning Intentions
• Focus on learning not what-to-do
• Use effective questioning to develop Learning Intentions
• Try and establish Learning Intentions at the start of the
lesson
• It is not always possible to set up a Learning Intention.
• Change the Learning Intentions if it improves learning

39. Conclusion
Engaging students through discussion and effective questioning is
the best way to establish Learning Intentions and helps them take
ownership of their learning.
www.roamer-educational-robot.com