Abstract:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot issue, not because it's new, but because of its impact on the whole sphere of our lives. AI in education brings personalized learning experiences, adaptive assessment tools, and efficient administrative tasks, enhancing the overall educational process and preparing students for the demands of a technologically advanced future. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of AI-embedded lessons in two selected graduate courses by comparing survey results between pre and post-tests. This study serves to identify key issues in AI and their careers, fostering sharing and reflection among future teacher educators who are attending master courses which focus on research, best practices, and applying new technology knowledge, methods, and skills directly in the classroom to enhance student learning. In this research, students were exposed to a set of AI competencies based on UNESCO's AI framework which identifies five aspects of AI-related competencies, including human-centered mindset, ethics of AI, AI foundations and applications, AI pedagogy, and AI for professional learning. This framework consists of three stages for teachers of each aspect to enhance their competencies with AI tools, including acquiring, deepening, and creating stages. Sixty-nine students who were enrolled in a teacher education masters program at a mid-sized university in Southern California during the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 sessions participated in the study. They were pre-service teachers whose credentialing goals ranged from early education through high school teaching and learning. A variety of common and emerging AI tools were introduced to them to explore in order to discover effective uses for the grade level of teaching. The analysis revealed statistically significant improvements (p < 0.01) from pre- to post-test for the most questions (18 questions out of 20). This indicates that for these specific questions, the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores, suggesting a positive impact of the session on student learning or perception related to these items. For questions 7 (I understand the role of AI creators' design decisions in enabling or undermining the ethical use of AI) and 8 (I am motivated to advocate for the ethics of AI tools and promote an ethic of care and empathy in their use), the observed differences were not statistically significant, so they acquired and deepened, but they did not reach the highest level. This could be because of the exploratory nature of the study. A secondary study seeking to understand AI tool implementation and use in K-12 settings may be needed to gain more accurate growth in these two areas.

In addition, the AI interventions appeared to have a positive and statistically significant impact on students’ perception and understanding across four of five UNESCO AI competencies: human-centered mindset, ethics of AI, AI foundations and applications, and AI pedagogy, and AI for professional learning. Integrating diverse perspectives, culturally relevant examples, and real-world applications of AI can help bridge these gaps, fostering a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all teachers as they prepare to integrate AI into their classrooms.

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence, AI pedagogy, professional learning, cultural relevance, diverse perspectives.