The impact of twenty-first century skills on university students’ robotic achievements

New approaches are frequently used to provide students with twenty-first century skills. In this direction, robots are quickly integrated in today's educational environments. However, studies in which robots are integrated into the curriculum as a pedagogical tool and examine its effect on twenty-first century skills are limited. This research examines the impact of robotics training on cooperation and flexibility, autonomous, cognitive and innovation skills which are found in the skills set of the twenty-first century. 54 university students selected by criterion sampling were recruited for these 14 weeks long explanatory sequential mixed-method study. The data were collected using the Scale of the Use of 21 st Century Learner Skills, Robotics Applications Achievement Test and semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. A paired sample t-test revealed that cooperation and flexibility, autonomous, cognitive and innovation skills were significantly improved. Moreover, linear regression analysis showed that all skills other than innovation were significant predictors of students’ robotic achievement. The results reported in this study shed new light on robotic education.