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About

Isabelle Maria Lima de Souza is a Brazilian education technology researcher whose work sits at the intersection of educational robotics, computational thinking, and programming education. She is best known for her 2018 systematic review on the use of LEGO® Robotics in Education, which has accumulated 64 citations and remains a key reference for scholars exploring how robotics kits support teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving in formal learning environments. Building on this foundation, de Souza has directed significant attention toward technical and vocational high school contexts in Brazil, investigating how educational robotics can cultivate computational thinking skills in students who are often underserved by mainstream STEM initiatives. Her 2021 studies — including both an applied classroom investigation and a systematic mapping of the broader research landscape — further consolidated her reputation as a rigorous synthesizer of evidence in this field. More recently, she has moved from diagnosis to design, proposing a structured methodological framework for teaching programming through robotics and empirically evaluating its effectiveness. Across her body of work, de Souza consistently champions robotics as more than a technical novelty, framing it as a transformative pedagogical tool capable of reshaping how young learners engage with complex, real-world problems.