To Meet the Trend of AI: The Ecology of Developing AI Talents for Pre-service Teachers in China

Abstract

In answering the tremendous achievement and growing advancement in the age of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter AI) in China and across the world, China has issued a series of political statements on developing AI including its national guideline on the development of AI in 2017. In contrast to the grooming applications of AI technologies in the field of engineering, agriculture, medicine etc, the deficiency of qualified and certified AI teachers for all grades is one of the major barriers that China is now facing in promoting its national AI scheme. This paper analyses the current situation observed in the east part of Guangdong Province and proposes a model that integrates regional government, regional normal universities, elite universities, AI companies and local primary and secondary schools as a unified organisation with regional normal universities(normal universities are the universities specifically founded for nurturing teachers at primary and secondary school education) as the central coordinator facilitating the smooth cooperation between different parties. This model which addresses the development of AI talents for pre-service teachers has the potential to be applied to other less-developed regions in China.