Artificial Intelligence and Teacher Candidate Learning

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is infiltrating our lives and is also gaining ground in education. Failing to acknowledge its presence in higher education, in particular, would be ostrichism. There is a growing body of research on AI in higher education discussing its modes of use and regulatory aspects (Rajki, Nagy & Dingó, 2024; Horváth, 2024; Bognár, 2024; Wang et all., 2023 etc.). According to Long and Magerko (in Bognár, 2024) AI literacy is a set of skills, competencies, knowledge and attitudes that enable individuals to integrate AI into the learning process. The aim of this presentation is to explore the current state and characteristics of AI literacy and AI application. It seeks to uncover the extent to which teacher candidates use AI, which areas of learning they apply it to, what are the motivating or hindering factors, and what challenges they face. Additionally, it examines the types of support they require to overcome these challenges, as well as the sources and areas of assistance. The survey research employed a self-constructed questionnaire as its main instrument. The study sample consists of students from the Department of Pedagogy and Applied Didactics at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Babeș-Bolyai University, including kindergarten and primary school teacher candidates, as well as students enrolled in the Efficient Learning Strategies master's program (N=431). Our findings indicate that, AI is moderately present in the learning activities of the respondents, and they primarily use it for learning support rather than for competing tasks. At the same time, AI users encounter numerous objective and subjective obstacles, and are faced with various challenges when it comes to AI application.