Establishing Meta-Learning Metrics When Programming Mindstorms EV3 Robots

Recently, wider issues of social relationships, contexts, feelings and personal goals have been recognized as impacting upon learning. Moreover, as the Higher Education paradigm appears to be shifting towards students as consumers, there is added pressure on academics to ensure students evaluate and subsequently ‘make sense’ of their educational experiences. This has been termed ‘meta-learning’ but there has been little research on meta-learning compared to the more recognized cognitive science term of metacognition. The paper describes a project in a Japanese university where meta-learning was promoted among first-year Systems Information Science students learning to program LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robots. Students were engaged in a collaborative, creative cycle termed TKF (Tsukutte つくって- Create)/Katatte かたって- Share)/Furikaeru - Reflect) to build and program robots to solve systematic problems. This paper will demonstrate that learners actively engaged in iteratively challenging robot-mediated interactive tasks can develop generic, declarative and epistemic competencies, with a consequential development of meta-learning.