Abstract

Teachers are at the front lines of implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in education. They are expected to develop an adequate understanding of AI and become educated users as well as educators. Their readiness for the use of AI is critical for the success of AI-enhanced education. The present study conceptualized AI readiness from four components: cognition, ability, vision, and ethics in the educational use of AI, and investigated their interrelationships and their implications for teachers’ work. The data from 3164 primary school teachers were collected and analyzed by partial least square structural equation modelling and cluster analysis. This study found that cognition, ability, and vision in the educational use of AI were positively associated with ethical considerations. The four components of AI readiness all positively predicted, whereas perceived threats from AI negatively predicted, AI-enhanced innovation, which in turn positively predicted teachers’ job satisfaction. This study identified three clusters of teachers based on their AI readiness levels. Teachers with high levels of AI readiness tended to perceive low threats from AI and demonstrate high AI-enhanced innovation as well as high job satisfaction. However, teachers from different socio-economic regions and of different genders showed no significant differences regarding AI readiness and its impact on their jobs. This study empirically validated the importance of AI readiness for teachers’ work and has important implications for the development of strategies and policies facilitating successful AI-enhanced education.

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly used in a variety of fields (e.g., industry, finance, and education) to promote innovation and increase work efficiency (Ng et al., 2021). In education, AI is touted as a seemingly almighty tool, supporting or even replacing teachers’ work by automatically tracking students’ progress, assessing their performance, and providing personalized help (Albacete et al., 2019; Chounta et al., 2022; Tarus et al., 2018). Teachers can rely on AI to make informed decisions on orchestrating teaching practice so as to better support student learning (Van Leeuwen & Rummel, 2020).

Nonetheless, in reality, intelligent tools for education are rarely used consistently in K-12 classrooms (Ferguson et al., 2016). Schiff (2021) found that much practice and research related to the educational use of AI did not deliver promised changes and benefits. Among the multiple reasons leading to this controversy, for instance, the quality of AI and users’ preferences (Luckin et al., 2022) and ethical concerns (Holmes et al., 2022), an essential culprit could be the techno-centric approach vehemently promoted by some in the educational field, which stresses the role of AI but ignores the agency of teachers who can decide whether, what, when, and how AI technologies are used in the first place (Luckin et al., 2022). Teachers are on the front lines of AI deployment, bridging schools’ AI policies and students’ needs, thereby the critical role in the successful implementation of AI in schools (Felix, 2020). However, many teachers may not be actually ready for AI-enhanced education, though they are mostly aware of the potential benefits that AI can bring to education (Chounta et al., 2022). Their inadequate AI readiness may partially contribute to the gap between rapid advances in AI technologies and comparatively slow and unsatisfactory adoption of them in education (Luan et al., 2020; Luckin et al., 2022).

Discussion

Although AI has been increasingly utilized in education and has been found to be beneficial and powerful for student learning (Smakman et al., 2021; Xia et al., 2022), little attention has been paid to the needs and challenges faced by teachers in AI-enhanced teaching (Celik et al., 2022; Langran et al., 2020). Teachers are seen as one of the crucial stakeholders in AI-enhanced education (Celik et al., 2022; Seufert et al., 2021). Therefore, their perspectives, needs, and experiences are vital to the successful integration of AI in school settings (Holmes et al., 2022). In order to effectively implement AI in the classroom, teachers must be prepared in terms of cognition, ability, vision, and ethical considerations related to the use of AI in education (Luckin et al., 2022). This study therefore aimed to empirically examine the concept of AI readiness among 3164 primary school teachers who had experiences using AI technologies in their work. In what follows, we discuss the important findings of this study by relating them to previous research on similar topics.