Abstract:

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into our schools and educational systems, preparing future K-12 teachers involves not only helping them use AI in their own lesson planning, curriculum design, differentiation, and assessment, but also equipping them to teach their students how to engage with AI ethically, responsibly, and creatively. This presentation introduces AI Teaching Lab, a collaborative initiative between a university librarian and a faculty member from the university’s School of Education. Building on the university’s participation in an Ithaka S+R cohort study on campus-wide AI literacy, the project aims to develop a more focused understanding of AI literacy and strategies for supporting future K-12 educators.

AI Teaching Lab is a three-part workshop series designed for preservice teachers modeled on the curriculum developed in UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Teachers, aligned with fifteen competencies across five dimensions: Human-Centred Mindset, Ethics of AI, AI Foundations and Applications, AI pedagogy, and AI for Professional Learning. To ensure direct applicability to both local and national standards, these dimensions and their corresponding learning objectives will be aligned with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Educators and Students as well as California’s Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs). Conference attendees will learn how to use this strategy to design a customized workshop curriculum aligned with their own regional standards.

The AI Teaching Lab uses formative assessments conducted throughout the three workshops to continually adapt its content. Data gathered in the pre and post survey assessments guide future iterations of the workshops series and findings will be shared with the broader profession.

In this presentation, we will share how the workshops were planned and implemented, including alignment mapping across the three frameworks, pre- and post-survey instruments, and evidence of growth in pre-service teachers’ confidence, competence, and ethical awareness surrounding AI. The presenters will also share their process for developing the workshops, including the critical and reflective use of AI. This session will be relevant to teacher educators, academic librarians, curriculum developers, and policy makers interested in ensuring that both teacher practice and student learning are shaped by ethical, inclusive, and human-centred AI competencies. Emphasizing sustainability, we will discuss strategies for designing workshops and learning activities that can be reused and adapted over time. Participants will leave with sample workshop syllabi, example surveys, and strategies for embedding global, national, and regional frameworks into educator preparation programs. The overarching goal for this presentation is to support educators in developing sustainable and effective practices that foster lasting impact on both teacher education and student learning in an AI-rich educational landscape.

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence, educational technology, teacher preparation, critical digital literacy, critical information literacy.