Promoting Students’ Well-Being by Developing Their Readiness for the Artificial Intelligence Age

Abstract

This study developed and validated an instrument to measure students’ readiness to learn about artificial intelligence (AI). The designed survey questionnaire was administrated in a school district in Beijing after an AI course was developed and implemented. The collected data and analytical results provided insights regarding the self-reported perceptions of primary students’ AI readiness and enabled the identification of factors that may influence this parameter. The results indicated that AI literacy was not predictive of AI readiness. The influences of AI literacy were mediated by the students’ confidence and perception of AI relevance. The students’ AI readiness was not influenced by a reduction in their anxiety regarding AI and an enhancement in their AI literacy. Male students reported a higher confidence, relevance, and readiness for AI than female students did. The sentiments reflected by the open-ended responses of the students indicated that the students were generally excited to learn about AI and viewed AI as a powerful and useful technology. The student sentiments confirmed the quantitative findings. The validated survey can help teachers better understand and monitor students’ learning, as well as reflect on the design of the AI curriculum and the associated teaching effectiveness.

An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior for the Modelling of Chinese Secondary School Students’ Intention to Learn Artificial Intelligence

“…In general, self-reported technological literacy has been demonstrated to predicts learners' effort to engage in technology-supported learning [8,13,14], which implies positive attitudes towards using the technology. Earlier studies on student learning about AI have thus formulated a factor such as AI literacy [2,15] as a necessary background factor to study student's behavioral intention. The basic knowledge that a person has is also foundational to his/her understanding of how useful the technology is (i.e., perceived usefulness) and whether the technology could be used to promote social good [2].…”

“…The basic knowledge that a person has is also foundational to his/her understanding of how useful the technology is (i.e., perceived usefulness) and whether the technology could be used to promote social good [2]. AI literacy has thus been reported to predict students' confidence, perceived relevance of learning AI and readiness towards AI [15].…”

“…Anxiety is a common feeling associated with the rapid development of technology. Specifically towards AI, which aims to be human-like, a general sense of fear could be easily formed [15,19]. Technological advancements have always been disruptive, and they are usually associated with the demise of some jobs as they give rise to new careers.…”

“…This form of anxiety can be traced back to technophobia and computer anxiety [19], and it is mostly unfounded fear that denotes a social climate [21]. Earlier research indicated that anxiety may not influence children's sense of readiness, and they are self-reportedly not anxious about but optimistic towards AI [15]. However, whether the perception of primary school children can be generalized to other older students needs verification.…”

“…Based on the general proposed directions of influence of the theory of planned behavior [7] and the findings of research from previous studies among primary school students who are learning AI [2,15], hypotheses H1-H18 were formulated. Generally, the hypotheses indicate that the background factors will significantly influence all factors downstream which could be categorized as attitudes towards the behavior (i.e., social good, perceived usefulness, attitude towards use), perceived behavioral control (i.e., confidence and optimism), and subsequently behavioral intention.…”