The Significance of Training Student-Teacher Lecturers in Pedagogical Robotic and Coding Skills

The development of students' robotics and coding skills is globally emphasised to encourage employment creation for the future. Future generations need digital, creative thinking, problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills for their careers. Therefore, effective training of lecturers who are teaching student teachers robotics and coding is important to ensure the development of required skills. A training session was held to establish student-teacher lecturers' (n=20) perceptions about the significance of teaching and learning robotic and coding skills. Participants were purposefully selected from a University of Technology and engaged in a training session on the fundamentals of robotics and coding skills. Before and after the training sessions data was collected and qualitatively analysed based on activity theory as a theoretical framework for this study. The results showed that student-teacher lecturers did have sufficient prior knowledge of what robotics and coding entail. It was also found that coding and robotic skills could contribute to the development of creative, inventive, imaginative, and analytical thinking skills that could assist students in their future careers. The significance of robotics and coding training could allow lecturers to gain more resources and improve teaching and learning strategies specifically in the fourth industrial era where knowledge of robotics and coding is essential. It can be concluded that lecturers must comprehend the significance of educational robotics (ER) and be aware of the most effective pedagogical approaches to apply ER activities in the classroom.