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Student Creativity: A Meta-analysis 

based on 48 Experimental and Quasi-

experimental Studies

Haoxiang Hou,
1
 Xianyi Zhang,

2
 Dan Wang

2
 

 
1. Faculty of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214000, Jiangsu, 

China 

2. Wuxi Teacher Development College, Wuxi 214000, Jiangsu, China

Cultivating innovative talents has become a critical strategy for building 

China into a strong country in science and technology. Catering to the 
trend of educational reform in the intelligent era, the use of robotics in 

developing student creativity proves to be of greater practical value. The 

findings of this study are that: first, the overall effect of educational 
robotics on student creativity reaches above-moderate level; second, 

educational robotics has more significant effects on creativity of primary 
and junior secondary students; third, in terms of subjects, robotics 

courses can most effectively promote student creativity; fourth, among 

various teaching topics, prototype creation has the most substantial 
impact on student creativity; fifth, in terms of instruction methods, 

inquiry-driven teaching can best stimulate student creativity; sixth, 
compared with ordinary classrooms, the laboratory environment is more 

favorable for the development of student creativity. The paper also offers 

recommendations for popularizing robotics curriculum at different 
education levels. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 11(1):1449-1454. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.ab001. 

How to Cite: Hou, H., Zhang, X., & Wang, D. (2022). Can educational robots 

improve student creativity: A meta-analysis based on 48 experimental and quasi-

experimental studies. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 11(1):1449-1454. 

Keywords: Educational Robot, Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, Software Programming, 

Teaching Mode 

 



Hou et al. Can Educational Robots Improve Student Creativity? 

BECE, Vol.11, No.1, 2022 1450 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

About the Authors: Xianyi Zhang, Wuxi Teacher Development College, Jiangsu Wuxi, 214000, China 

Dan Wang, Wuxi Teacher Development College, Jiangsu Wuxi, 214000, China 

Correspondence to: Haoxiang Hou, Faculty of Education, Jiangnan University, Jiangsu Wuxi, 214000, China. E-

mail: 1296910644@qq.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. 

mailto:1296910644@qq.com
http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Hou et al. Can Educational Robots Improve Student Creativity? 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1451 

This paper uses meta-analysis to code and analyze experimental research on robotics 

education in China and other countries and combines field research to investigate the 

effect of robotics education on student creativity, aiming to provide useful references 

for the implementation of robotics curriculum in schools. In this study, three teaching 

methods are discussed to utilize educational robots to develop student creativity: the 

robotics-based inquiry-driven method; the robot design-based teaching method; the ro-

botic application project-based teaching method. 

Research Design 

Methods and Instruments 

The present study uses meta-analysis to examine the sample data in existing research to 

systematically evaluate the results of numerous studies by quantitative synthesis. Sam-

ples and parameters such as the mean values and standard deviations of the experi-

mental and control groups are extracted from the experimental studies to calculate 

standardized mean differences (SMD) which are treated as effect sizes. Hedges’ g value 

is one of the estimated values of SMD, a computation result combining the SMD with 

the mixed variance of the control group and the experimental group. Compared with 

Cohen’s d and Glass’ values, it is more suitable for the meta-analysis of effect sizes 

based on relatively small sample sizes and limited number of studies. Hence, Hedges’s 

g value is used as the final effect size to demonstrate the effect of robotics education on 

student creativity. 

Data Selection and Coding 

The present study searched Chinese and foreign literature databases for journal articles, 

dissertations, academic conference papers, etc. to acquire as many samples as possible. 

A total of 852 pieces of literature addressing the relationship between educational ro-

bots and student creativity and published between 2001 and 2020 were obtained. All of 

them adopt randomized experimental or quasi-experimental methods and encompass 

experimental and control groups, sample sizes in statistical results, means, standard de-

viations, experimental periods, and other data. The following criteria were used to de-

cide whether to include the study in the analysis: i) applying robotics in educational and 

teaching activities, including the cases wherein the experimental group employs robots 

in teaching while the control group adopts conventional teaching methods; ii) treating 

student creativity as the dependent variable in both the experimental and the control 

group; iii) providing sufficient data for the computation of the average effect size (the 

data resulting from the experimental and control group analysis must include sample 

sizes, means, standard deviations, etc.). After several rounds of screening, 48 papers 

were selected, and 6,057 samples extracted for this meta-analysis. The included litera-

ture covers all the education levels ranging from kindergarten to university; subjects 

such as mathematics, geography, science, and robotics; teaching programs like proto-

type creation, engineering production, scientific inquiry, and result verification; teach-

ing methods including inquiry-driven, design-based, and project-based instruction; 

teaching locations including experiment rooms and classrooms. This paper classifies 



Hou et al. Can Educational Robots Improve Student Creativity? 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1452 

student creativity into three categories: A-creative thinking (critical thinking, logical 

thinking, divergent thinking, imagination, spatial thinking ability, etc.), B-practical in-

novation ability (practical operation, problem solving, engineering, scientific inquiry, 

etc.), and C-creative personality and psychology (personality traits, perseverance, 

teamwork, interest in learning, etc.) 

Results 

The Test of Overall Effect 

The test results demonstrate that Hedges’ s g-values of both the fixed effects model and 

the random effects model are greater than 0, and the P-value in the two-tailed test is less 

than 0.001, indicating that robotics education has a significant positive impact on stu-

dent creativity. Compared with fixed-effects models, random-effects models are more 

useful in addressing the measurement discrepancy between various study results and the 

overall effect size. According to the theory of SMD statistics, when 0.51≤SMD≤1, it 

is considered an effect size of above-moderate level. Thus, the analysis results of sum-

mary effect size (SMD = 0.576) in this study demonstrate that robotics education exerts 

an above-moderate positive impact on student creativity. 

The Test of Effects on Different Categories of Student 

Creativity 

Robotics education has significant effects on student creativity in different categories 

and in various combinations of these categories. Specifically, student practical innova-

tion ability (B category) is most significantly enhanced (SMD = 0.453, P < 0.001) by 

robotics education, followed by student creative thinking (A category) (SMD = 0.386, P 

< 0.001), while student creative personality and psychology (C category) is moderately 

improved (SMD = 0.283, P < 0.001, 0.21 ≤ SMD ≤ 0.50). In terms of student creativity 

in different category combinations, the configuration of A and B categories is most sub-

stantially and positively affected by educational robotics (SMD = 0.757, P < 0.001), 

indicating that the robotics curriculum significantly bolsters student creative thinking 

and practical innovation ability. 

Tests of Various Mediating Effects 

i. Robotics education engenders differential effects on student creativity at differ-

ent education levels. Due to the limited sample size of kindergartens and uni-

versities, the comparison is focused on the different effects on the creativity of 

primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary students. The creativity of jun-

ior secondary students is most significantly boosted by robotics education 

(SMD = 0.607, P < 0.001), followed by that of primary students (SMD = 0.435, 

P < 0.001), but it has no significant effect on the creativity of senior secondary 

students.   

ii. There are subject differences in the effects of robotics curriculum on student 

creativity. In the robotics course, the boosting effect on student creativity is the 



Hou et al. Can Educational Robots Improve Student Creativity? 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1453 

most remarkable, reaching the above-moderate level (SMD= 0.606, P< 0.001), 

followed by the mathematics course (SMD = 0.466, P < 0.001). The sample 

sizes of geography and science courses are too small to represent significant ef-

fect. 

iii. Mediating effects diverge among various teaching programs in robotics curric-

ulum, while all of them can significantly promote student creativity. Programs 

such as hands-on creation, experimental verification, process participation are 

exceptionally effective in enhancing student innovation ability. 

iv. In terms of the mediation of different teaching methods, the influence of in-

quiry-driven teaching on student creativity is extremely significant (SMD = 

0.927, P < 0.001), followed by that of design-based teaching (SMD = 0.598, P 

< 0.001) and project-based teaching (SMD = 0.529, P < 0.001), which implies 

that robotics curriculum can maximize its effect on the cultivation of student 

creativity through project exploration, high student participation, hands-on 

learning and other methods. 

v. Robotics education at various teaching locations can all contribute to the de-

velopment of student creativity. In the ordinary classroom, robotics teaching 

yields a significant effect on the advancement of student creativity (SMD = 

0.485, P < 0.001). In the laboratory environment, the creation of learning situa-

tions and interaction with educational robots significantly improve the effect of 

robotics education on student creativity (SMD = 0.578, P < 0.001), highlighting 

the relevance of strengthening laboratory environment construction. 

Conclusions and Discussion 

Popularizing the Robotics Education Curriculum 

The positive effect of robotics curriculum on student creativity reflects the substantial 

benefits of intelligent education for student creativity development. Therefore, it is of 

vital importance to incorporate the education of intelligent robots into the school curric-

ulum to improve students’ literacy in programming control, human-computer interac-

tion, algorithm programs, neural networks, and intelligent ethics. 

Emphasizing the Cultivation of Student Creativity at 

Basic Education Levels 

It is recommended to invest more in promoting student creativity by robotics education 

at the primary and secondary stages. The secondary school level is particularly critical 

to the comprehensive development of student innovation ability. 

Constructing a Robot Maker Teaching Model Suitable 

for Student Innovation Capability 



Hou et al. Can Educational Robots Improve Student Creativity? 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1454 

The effects of various teaching programs and methods on student creativity in robotics 

education suggest that teaching modes that assist in prototype creation and inquiry-

driven learning is most beneficial to enhancing student creativity. 

Strengthening the Construction of the Laboratory’s 

Tangible and Soft Conditions 

Tangible conditions cover the following facilities that enable students to experience 

robotic learning: equipment for conception, such as multimedia devices, drawing tools, 

and electronic whiteboards; designing equipment, including modeling software, robot 

making software, online robot simulation platform, etc.; operation facilities, such as 

LEGO robots, Arduino robots, and assembly welding equipment; presentation facilities, 

providing students with display platforms to test the performance of their robots. Soft 

conditions involve teaching program making, case demonstration, information re-

sources, cognitive tools, dialogue and collaboration instruments, and social network 

support. The effective integration of tangible and soft conditions creates an environment 

facilitating robotic experimental teaching and promoting student innovation thinking, 

hands-on creation, and teamwork skills. 

 

 

 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Journal of East China Normal University 

(Educational Sciences), 2022, 40(3):99-111. The English version has been authorized for being 

publication in BECE by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 

侯浩翔, 张先义, 王旦. (2022). 教育机器人可以提升学生创造力吗?—基于 48 项实验与准实验

研究的 Meta 分析. 华东师范大学学报: 教育科学版. 40(3):99-111 

 

 

Received: 07 April 2022 

Revised: 20 April 2022 

Accepted: 11 May 2022 

 

 

 

 

 


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