Learning with Cozmo: Embodied-Affective Social Mediation in Child–Robot Programming Education

Abstract

Social robots are increasingly explored in education, yet their pedagogical value remains under-theorized and inconsistently realized in practice. This paper investigates how embodied social robots can support early programming education through the design and deployment of a two-week Cozmo-based curriculum co-developed with teachers and implemented in a real-world learning setting for children aged 7-10. Grounded in embodied cognition, constructionism, and social mediation, we present a mixed-methods study combining qualitative teacher interviews with quantitative engagement and affect measures. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we identify three interrelated mechanisms through which the robot supports learning: embodied feedback, affective engagement, and teacher-mediated social scaffolding. We contribute a conceptual framework of Embodied-Affective Social Mediation, positioning social robots not as standalone teaching tools but as mediating infrastructures that couple physical action, social interaction, and emotional engagement. Our findings show that while embodiment enables immediate cause-effect understanding and affect sustains motivation, the educational value of the system critically depends on teacher facilitation. We also identify key constraints related to technical reliability and scalability. This work provides design implications for integrating social robots into pedagogy and advances a conceptual understanding of how embodiment and affect shape learning in child-robot interaction.