Play-Testing REMind: Evaluating an Educational Robot-Mediated Role-Play Game

2026-03-31

AI Summary

This study addresses the insufficient willingness and capacity among children to intervene as bystanders in school bullying by proposing and evaluating REMind, a social robot–guided role-playing system. The work introduces an innovative Robot-Mediated Applied Drama (RMAD) framework that integrates role-playing, human–robot interaction, and reflective practice, enabling children to observe bullying scenarios through robot avatars, comprehend multiple perspectives, and rehearse intervention strategies. A mixed-methods evaluation with 18 children aged 9–10 demonstrated that REMind significantly enhanced participants’ self-efficacy, perspective-taking abilities, understanding of intervention consequences, and mastery of practical intervention techniques, thereby offering a novel paradigm for social-emotional learning.

Abstract

This paper presents REMind, an innovative educational robot-mediated role-play game designed to support anti-bullying bystander intervention among children. REMind invites players to observe a bullying scenario enacted by social robots, reflect on the perspectives of the characters, and rehearse defending strategies by puppeteering a robotic avatar. We evaluated REMind through a mixed-methods play-testing study with 18 children aged 9--10. The findings suggest that the experience supported key learning goals related to self-efficacy, perspective-taking, understanding outcomes of defending, and intervention strategies. These results highlight the promise of Robot-Mediated Applied Drama (RMAD) as a novel pedagogical framework to support Social-Emotional Learning.

Problem

• bystander intervention
• anti-bullying
• social-emotional learning
• robot-mediated role-play
• educational robotics

Innovation

• Robot-Mediated Applied Drama
• social robots
• bystander intervention
• role-play game
• Social-Emotional Learning