Shina, D., Usart, M. & Esteve-González, V. (2019). Participants’ perceptions about their learning with FIRST LEGO® League Competition – a gender study. 10th International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE). April 10 – 12 of 2019. Vienna, Austria.

1. Participants’ perceptions about their
learning with FIRST LEGO® League
Competition – a gender study
Despoina Schina, Mireia Usart & Vanessa Esteve-Gonzalez
(* despoina.schina@urv.cat , mireia.usart@urv.cat & vanessa.esteve@urv.cat )
RiE 2019: 10th International Conference on Robotics in Education, Vienna, April 10-12, 2019
Applied Research Group in
Education and Technology
Marie Skłodowska
Curie No. 713679

2. 1. Introduction
2. Research Questions
3. Context & Sample
4. Methodology
5. Results
6. Conclusions
7. Future Research
Contents

3. 1. Introduction

4. 1. Introduction

5. 2. Research Questions
 Research Question 1
What are the participants’ perceptions about their learning in
FLL Competition?
 Research Question 2
To what extent do females’ perceptions about their learning in
FLL Competition differ compared to males’?

6. 3. Context & Sample
 Context:
3%
64%
33%
Age Distribution
16 years old 13-15 years old 10-12 years old
 Sample:
 Participants: 84 (45M and 39F)
 Average age: 13 years old
 Age range: 10 – 16 years old

7. 4. Methodology
Questionnaire Sections Items Measure
0. Demographic Information 4 items gender
1. Learning about the world Q1 – Q8 Likert 1-5
2. Learning to solve problems Q9 – Q14 Likert 1-5
3. Learning to engage Q15 – Q19 Likert 1-5
4. Learning to apply knowledge Q20 – Q22 Likert 1-5
5. Learning to communicate Q23 – Q26 Likert 1-5
6. Learning to apply the technology cycle Q27 – Q31 Likert 1-5
7. Opinions on activities Q32 – Q36 Likert 1-5
8. Open questions 7 items -
 Instrument:
 Questionnaire
(Chalmers, 2013)

8. 4. Methodology
 Questionnaire Validation
o Translation in Greek
o Expert Validation
o Cronbach's alpha test
o All items (α = 0.95)
o Ambiguity (α = 0.81)
o Pertinence (α = 0.94)
o Importance (α = 0.94)
Importance
77% of the items were
evaluated with 3.5/4.0 or higher.
Pertinence
87.5% of the items received a
score of 3.5/4.0 or higher.
Ambiguity
85% of the items considered
clear by 80% of the experts.
The online validation questionnaire is available at https://goo.gl/forms/AvU6nAA1fBhhSE3g1

9. 5. Results
RQ1: Participants’ perceptions about their learning in FLL Competition
A. Participants’ answers-frequency
mean scores
B. Participants’ answers per section
mean scores
4.42 4.42 4.34
3.98
4.46 4.41
4.60
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
4.50
5.00
Meanfrequency
Questionnaire Sections
4
21
11
0
5
10
15
20
25
items
Mean frequency
3.5-3.99 4.0-4.49 4.5-5.0

10. 5. Results
RQ2: To what extent do females’ perceptions about their learning in FLL Competition
differ compared to males’?
o The frequency means of each questionnaire item for
males and females were calculated separately as it
follows:
o In 86% of the questionnaire items females’ frequency
means were higher than males’.
86%
14%
Highest frequency means
girls boys
Section Item M(SD) M(SD) M(SD)
Males Females Total
Section 1
(learning about
the world)
Q1- I learnt about the
world outside of school 4.36(.61) 4.62(.63) 4.49(.63)

11. 5. Results
RQ2: To what extent do females’ perceptions about their learning in FLL Competition
differ compared to males’?
Section Items Males
M(SD)
Females
M(SD)
Pearson
Correlation
Section 3
(learning to
engage)
Q17 – “I was trying new ideas”
4.24(.85) 4.62(.72)
(r= 0,238,
p=0.35)
Section 5
(learning to
communicate)
Q25 – “I asked other students to
explain their ideas”
4.26(.72) 4.68(.58)
(r=0,305,
p=0,006)

12. 6. Conclusions
RQ1: Participants’ perceptions about their learning in FLL Competition
Conclusions Section Answers’
Mean
1. Participants view the FLL Competition as a great opportunity for
learning about real word problems and for the acquisition of skills in
STEM areas of studies.
ER competition experience has an impacts on students’ learning and motivation for
further exploring in STEM or STEM related fields (Eguchi, 2015).
ER competition participants had a more positive attitude toward science and science
related areas (Welch, 2011) .
Section 1 - learning about
the world
4.42/5.00
Section 2 - solve problems 4.42/5.00
Section 4 - apply 3.98/5.00
Section 6 - technology 4.41/5.00
2. Participants view the FLL Competition as a great opportunity for
collaboration and socialization.
The students felt that they had learnt how to work as part of a team, how to
communicate effectively with people (Ball, 2012).
Section 5 - communicate 4.46/5.00
3. Participants enjoy the competition as they are engaged in activities of
their preference.
ER is an effective learning tool is that helps create a fun and engaging learning
environment that keeps students interested and engaged in learning (Eguchi, 2014)
Section 3 - engage 4.34/5.00
Section 7 – opinions on
activities
4.60/5.00

13. 6. Conclusions
RQ2: To what extent do females’ perceptions about their learning in FLL Competition
differ compared to males’?
Conclusions Section Items
1. Females seem to perceive their learning more positively than
males in the context of FLL competition.
Females showed more positive attitudes and motivation at the FLL activities
(Kaloti-Hallak, 2015).
Section 1 - 7 Females’ tendency to provide
higher frequency means answers
in 86% of the items.
2. Females report to be more eager to experiment than male
participants in the context of FLL competition.
Section 3
(learning to
engage)
Correlation with gender and item
Q17 – “I was trying new ideas”
3. Females report to be more likely to adopt collaborative
strategies than male participants in the context of FLL
competition.
Section 5
(learning to
communicate)
Correlation with gender and item
Q25 – “I asked other students to
explain their ideas”.

14. 7. Future Research
 Study the actual process of
learning through observation
throughout a team’s
preparation for a robotics
competition.
 Investigate the relation
between self-perceived
learning and actual learning.

15. References
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of the 7th workshop in primary and secondary computing education, pp. 141–142. ACM, (2012).
Chalmers, C.: Learning with FIRST LEGO League. In: Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) Conference, pp. 5118–5124.
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Kaloti-Hallak, F., Armoni, M., Ben-Ari, M.: Students’ attitudes and motivation during robotics activities. In: Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing
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Rosen, J.H.: FIRST LEGO League Participation: Perceptions of Minority Student Participants and their FLL Coaches. In: 120th ASEE Annual Conference &
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Welch, A.G.: Using the TOSRA to assess high school students’ attitudes toward science after competing in the first robotics competition: An exploratory
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16. Participants’ perceptions about their learning with
FIRST LEGO® League Competition – a gender study
Despoina Schina, Mireia Usart & Vanessa Esteve-Gonzalez
(despoina.schina@urv.cat * , mireia.usart@urv.cat & vanessa.esteve@urv.cat )
RiE 2019: 10th International Conference on Robotics in Education, Vienna, April 10-12, 2019
Applied Research Group in
Education and Technology
Marie Skłodowska
Curie No. 713679
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