Educational Robotics for an Inclusive Education: Intention to Use Educational Robotics Among Learning Support Teachers

Teachers play a key role in an inclusive teaching practice via the use of Educational Robotics (ER). In Study 1, we validated the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology directed to measure the acceptance of ER in a sample of 319 learning support teachers’ (LST) via structural equation modelling. Results showed that perceptions of robotics’ usefulness and adaptability were related to the intention to use ER. In Study 2, perceptions and intention to use ER with students at an economic, cultural and linguistic disadvantage and with neurodevelopmental disorders were measured in 187 LST with different levels of expertise in ER. Results showed that, in regard to the economic, cultural and linguistic disadvantages, intention to use was related to perception of usefulness and adaptability; in the case of the neurodevelopmental disorders, intention to use was related to the perception of adaptability and teachers’ expertise. In Study 3, we investigated gender-differentiated behavioural intentions of 158 LST reading one of two vignettes regarding a student failing an ER activity (a male student or a female student). Results indicated that LST with high levels of gender stereotypes declared less intention to use ER with the female student as compared with the male one.