본 연구는 교사보조로봇을 활용한 활동이 유아의 사회적 능력에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 알아보는데 그 목적이 있다. 충청남도 공주시에 소재한 K유치원 만 5세 두 학급 유아 38명을 대상으로 실험집단과 통제 집단으로 구분하여 실험을 실시하였다. 유아의 사회적 능력을 측정하기 위한 도구로는 Lafreniere와 Dumas(1995)의 Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation(SCBE)를 안라리(2005)가 번안한 도구를 사용하였다. t검증 결과에 따르면 실험집단이 통제집단의 유아보다 사회적능력 점수가 높았으며, 유의한 수준에서 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 사회적 능력 점수의 하위수준을 따로 분석한 결과는 또래와의 상호작용에는 유의미한 차이가 없었으며, 성인과의 상호작용에만 유의미한 차이가 발견되었다. 따라서 교사 보조로봇을 활용한 활동이 유아의 전반적인 사회적 능력에는 긍정적인 영향이 있음을 확인할 수 있었지만, 또래와의 상호작용에 유의미한 차이가 없다는 결과는 추후 후속연구가 필요한 부분이라 할 수 있다.

This study examines whether the reinforcement theory would be effectively applied to teaching assistant robots between a robot and a student in the same way as it is applied to teaching methods between a teacher and a student. Participants interact with a teaching assistant robot in a 3 (types of robots: positive reinforcement vs. negative reinforcement vs. both reinforcements) by 2 (types of participants: honor students vs. backward students), within-subject experiment. Three different types of robots, such as ‘Ching-chan-ee’ which gives ‘positive reinforcement’, ‘Um-bul-ee’ which gives ‘negative reinforcement’, and ‘Sang-bul-ee’ which gives both ‘positive and negative reinforcement’ are designed based on the reinforcement theory and the token reinforcement system. Participants’ task performance and reaction rate are measured according to the types of robots and the types of participants. In task performance, the negative reinforcement robot is more effective than the other two types, but regarding the number of stimulus, the less the stimulus is, the more effective the task performance is. Also, participants showed the highest reaction rate on the negative reinforcement robot which implies that the negative reinforcement robot is most effective to motivate students. The findings demonstrate that the participants perceive the teaching assistant robot not as a toy but as a teaching assistant and the reinforcement interaction is important and effective for teaching assistant robots to motivate students. The results of this study can be implicated as an effective guideline to interaction design of teaching assistant robots.