Five classroom use cases deploying social robots for emotional learning, conflict mediation, and one-on-one support¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Each robot type is operationalised as a use case: exploring social issues through enacted scenarios ('What would you do?'), emotion regulation and physical proximity exercises including boundary-violation exploration, one-on-one settings from job interview training to sharing emotions with a trustworthy partner, externally guided scenarios encouraging pupils to push classroom-rule boundaries, and re-enactment of concretely observed classroom scenes. 'The key advantage across all five use cases is twofold': physical presence surpassing multimedia animations, and abstraction because robots are machines rather than humans.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Use case four requires ethical guardrails and clear guidelines, informing pupils about the experimental setting, and external coaches rather than classroom teachers to control the robot

Constraints¶

• Robots' enactment differs pedagogically and ethically from showing a video, though physical presence may be crucial in some educational contexts, though not necessarily in all cases

Target Learners¶

• pupils between the ages of eight and fifteen in MindMatters schools

Target Learning Goals¶

• emotional learning
• conflict mediation
• emotion regulation
• self-disclosure and trust

Affordances¶

• Five Robot Types Classroom Support Typology

Related Strategies¶

• Ethical governance safeguards for robot-supported mental health education with children
• Role-Playing Emotional Scenarios
• Acting/Role Play

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Christ, O., Riedl, R., Schmid, J., Zürcher, P., & Thilo, F. (2026). Theoretical Perspectives on Teaching with Robots: From Interdisciplinary Prerequisites and Necessities in Today's Classrooms to Five Different Types of Robots. AI Educ. 2, 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/aieduc2030028