exploring the impact of robotics-based learning on students’ emotional intelligence and academic achievement: a semi-experimental study

Background: nowadays, the advancement and integration of new technologies in educational settings have emerged as significant and complex challenges. among these innovations, robotic-based learning (rbl) has garnered considerable interest from researchers and educators alike. this study aimed to explore the impact of rbl on students’ emotional intelligence (ei) and academic achievement.methods: this semi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design featuring two groups: an intervention group that underwent training using the rbl method and a control group that received traditional training. the research was carried out at a secondary school in behbahan city, iran, from september 2022 to may 2023. a total of 30 eligible students were selected through a convenience sampling method, with 15 randomly assigned to the intervention group and 15 to the control group. a learning achievement test comprising 20 open-ended questions covering various mathematical domains was administered as a pre-test in september 2022 and again as a post-test immediately after the intervention in may 2023. additionally, the brief emotional intelligence scale (beis-10) was employed to evaluate the emotional intelligence (ei) of the students. data analysis was performed using analysis of covariance and independent samples t-tests, utilizing spss version 24, with a significance threshold set at a p-value of less than 0.05.results: the results indicated that rbl has a significant effect on students’ ei and sub-dimensions of self-motivation (p=0.081), self-awareness (p<0.001), self-control (p=0.061), social awareness (p<0.001), and social skills (p=0.003). also, the results of the ancova test comparing the pretest and posttest of both intervention and control groups revealed a significant effect of rbl on the students’ learning achievements (p<0.001).conclusion: the findings of this study indicate that rbl is an effective instructional approach for enhancing both student achievement and ei among first-year secondary students.