It's a Tool Not a Crutch: A Pilot Generative AI Intervention to Enhance Pre-service Teachers' Self-efficacy and AI Literacy

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence’s (GenAI) integration in education has seen widespread changes in how students engage with, and how educators go about their practice and administrative duties, using this new technology. Therefore, the ways GenAI might successfully integrate into programmes of study, in this case, both primary and post-primary initial teacher education (ITE), and the complexity of its relationship with teachers and students requires further examination. This exploratory qualitative approach, with embedded quantitative elements, explored the pedagogical value of integrating and using GenAI to enhance pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and AI literacy using a scenario-based learning (SBL) approach. The research project comprised three distinct phases of data collection with cohorts of primary (n = 12) and post-primary (n = 6) pre-service teachers. The researchers designed and evaluated the impact of a pilot GenAI SBL intervention on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and AI literacy. This pilot project sought to determine the feasibility and impact of integrating GenAI in an ITE programme. Results indicate the GenAI intervention positively impacted pre-service teachers' self-efficacy, AI literacy, and successfully boosted the confidence of pre-service teachers in their teaching capabilities. Further research is required to identify and highlight effective aspects of the intervention that significantly boost self-efficacy and AI literacy and assess the long-term impact of integrating the intervention into both primary and post-primary ITE programmes. The researchers posit this pilot demonstrates the positive and impactful potential of a GenAI SBL intervention and makes recommendations for its integration into programmes of study.