Focusing on Teacher Education to Introduce AI in Schools: Perspectives and Illustrative Findings

Abstract

The increasing ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence in consumer products, toys, and various smart technologies and applications creates the necessity for the current generation of children to forge a finer understanding of the technology. One way to achieve such a form of comprehension and resourcefulness is through meaningful engagement with AI in an educational context. Inclusion of AI literacy and AI thinking in the school curriculum are in their early adoption phases in various countries. This paper explores the efforts put forth in AI curriculum implementation in schools through teacher education programs in India. The early and post-training perspectives of the teachers have been observed, and the challenges reported by teachers in influential factors such as lapses in policy communication, infrastructure, pedagogy, content delivery and the influence of culture in the context of Indian schools have been discussed. The results indicate a poor belief state in the potential of AI among teachers and the interest to explore peer teaching and game-based approaches in the classroom to introduce AI, among other findings.