Not just composing, but programming music in group robotics

Abstract

This study examines group robotics’ impacts on elementary students’ attitudes toward music, attitudes toward group work, and music composition when they are composing music via a robotics platform in collaborative and cooperative groups. One hundred ninety-one students in fourth and fifth grades completed the music composing project over the course of fourteen weeks for one hour each week. Results indicated that collaborative and cooperative group activities did not result in any significant differences in the Attitude toward Music. In the Attitude toward Group Work, collaboration and cooperation in group activities did not result in any differences while cooperation resulted in a higher score. Lastly, the collaborative group showed a higher score in the Music Composition. The results indicate that student benefits can be supported with different structures of group work, collaboration or cooperation. Further discussions and suggestions were made.