Abstract
Recently, Coding and Robotics has formally been incorporated as one of the subjects that form part of curriculum reform with mixed results.
Additionally, digital and computer technologies have permeated nearly every part of 21st century life in a short time span. After the boom of Educational Technology and AI that resulted from the lockdowns and limitations placed on the world in 2020, a myriad of products and services have become available that are intended to assist learners and teachers in the new educational landscape that resulted. One of the most prominent developments has been in the field of Artificial Intelligence and its use in schooling.
The aim of the research was to observe how learners use generative AI naturally, without being led to interact in certain predetermined ways. A group of 135 grade 8 learners (12-14 years old) in a private school in Cape Town, South Africa were assigned a Generative AI bot designed by their Coding and Robotics teacher as a revision tool for exams, housed within a service which provides ringfenced access to interact with a Generative AI made specifically for education. Without any guidelines provided, the learners’ interaction with the tutor bot was recorded and analysed. Findings reveal that learners used Generative AI to ask procedural and concept clarification questions and that there is a strong correlation between active engagement and perceived learning quality. It also showed that there is a need for adapting GenAI to scaffold learning more effectively as learners exhibit a lack in metacognition and self-regulation.