1 1. Introduction
1.1 Aim and research question
2 2. Related research
2.1 AI skills, literacy, competence or education?—concept, definition and research history
2.2 Relevance of teachers' content knowledge and preconceptions in education related to AI
3 Methodological approach
3.1 Study context: Digital Competence in the Swedish teacher education system
3.2 Respondents and study setting
3.3 Questionnaire details
3.3.1 Data and Analysis from Questionnaires
3.4 Focus groups
3.4.1 Data Analysis from the focus groups
4 Results
4.1 Results from the Questionnaire
4.1.1 Demographic data
4.1.2 Framework based on questionnaire data
Main theme | Subthemes | Representative quotes | Constructs |
---|---|---|---|
AI concept | Humanlike traits, thinking, conscious, replace humans | R11: “Some "machine" that thinks for itself”; R18: “a consciousness that independently of other (after creation) is able to think” | MU |
Categorise data, learn from experience | R17: “A system that learns from its experiences”, R2: “Trainable software.” | TK + |
Emotions & attitudes | Risks: ethical and legal | R12: “Curiosity and certain anxiety about how to control it.”, R2: “Mixed: trust if it is well trained and used where it works and for legitimate purposes. However, I don't trust that it always will be used where it works and for legitimate purposes. One illegitimate purpose would be population surveillance in non-democracies.” | E-/ TK- |
Opportunities | R17: “Fascination, exciting, but a bit scary”, R6: “Curiosity but also a bit frightening” | E + - |
Machine learning | Big data, algorithms and programming | R3: “With the help of code, computer programs create robots that "learn" to recognise, perceive situations and carry out tasks, solve problems.”, R7: “Patterns are discovered by programmed analysis and a big amount of data. The more data analysed the more certainty of the results/analysis.” | TK + |
Limitations and complexity | R6: “It’s useful for simple tasks, like quizzes and pronunciation exercises.” | TK + MU |
AI in your life | Specific applications | R4: “Social media that remembers and spreads information about me without me knowing” | TK + /E- |
Unspecific | R5: “Perhaps functions in a smartphone?” | MU |
AI in the future | Limitations | R6: “I hope never to be subjected to, for instance, AI psychotherapy.” | E- |
High expectations for healthcare and education | R11: “It can be of big help for identifying problems for example in healthcare, education and production etc.” | E + | |
Ethical aspects | R9: “Probably many applications but one has to make sure that they are used in the right places” | E | |
Complement human capabilities | R14: “To be an extra resource, but also to be able to draw conclusions from masses of data, where people do not have the ability to do this.”, R3: “To make many things more efficient and to get help from AI to discover new things” | E |
4.2 Results from the focus groups
4.2.1 Demographic data
4.2.2 Extended framework based on focus group data
Main theme | Subthemes | Representative Quotes | Construct |
---|---|---|---|
AI concept | Representative of current AI applications | “We often think of AI as replacing humans or humanity but in reality, it is AI that replaces more specific and smaller tasks.” | TK + |
Representative of AI in sci fi and future | “sci fi and films. They are often dealing with issues in society that are not real here yet, but maybe they will be in the future” | ||
Uncertainties and misunderstandings | “I am actually a bit unsure about what AI is. Is it self-taught? Or what can an AI do? I don't feel sure. Is it an AI if it just looks through data and finds the same information?”, “What is the difference between an algorithm and an AI? So personalized ads, for example, it is based on previous clicks, this is not an AI?”, “it states the document that we are supposed to work with these issues…” | TK- | |
AIEd | Human AI collaboration | Regarding ChatGPT: “…you have to be kind of smart when you are writing to the AI as well.” | TPK + |
Lack of Professional Development | “I agree with participant x that teachers have far too little competence to provide adequate teaching in these issues.”, “It is expected of us that we know this, it's not like we have this knowledge from our education. A lot has happened since we were newly graduated teachers.“, “It is expected of us that we know this, it's not like we have this knowledge from our education. A lot has happened since we were newly graduated teachers. Like programming and other things where you, on your own initiative, have to find the time to learn these things and feel that you are competent enough, and there are many that feel uncertain…” | TPK- | |
Instant feedback and personalised learning | “…there are applications where you do exercises and then it is adjusted to your level.” | TPK + | |
AI literacy | “…these are difficult things to explain. When you explain this you have to do it in an abstract way.”, “AI controls more of students' everyday lives than they realize. We, teachers, know too little about this to carry out adequate training. We are also not aware of how little we know.”, “There are motives for these like making people buy new things and like you say you get owned. And this in turn has consequences for how you engage in society which is related to democracy. The information that you get is often determined by algorithms and what you might already know and like.” | TPK | |
Difficulty linking high-level concepts with practice | “we take examples like how to give instructions like how to make a sandwich for example. And to start with they do not know that they need to be precise and specific so the computer will understand. The computers are dumb, they don't consider things like us”, “We teach it [social media and sharing data] and use it but we don't connect it to the democratic assignment.” | TPK- TCK- | |
AI in daily life | Understanding through real-life applications | “…like my diabetes tracker, here I feed it with as much information I can so it can help me to regulate my living better. The more data I give it the better it can help me.” | TCK + |
Mismatch between expected knowledge and actual knowledge based on the presence of technology | “They sit with their phones, but they do not even know how to send an email on the phone. So, we expect that they know certain things and they don't, when we use it in class then we think they know this. So, we don't have a plan on what skills they should have at what stage.” | ||
AI in future | Teacher role | “Our role might change, it might improve so it can be better since we can be present as humans and free up the time from the repetitive tasks.” | TPK |
AR and VR | “We can bring the world into the classroom…with biology you can have sensors etc. to measure things in your body” | TPK | |
Ethics | Accountability | “How can we trust that AI does not take over and make the wrong decisions from a human perspective I also want to say this about worry, that it causes some anxiety in all of us. And you feel, at least I feel that I am not in control.” | E |