Pre-Service Teachers’ Level of Awareness and Extent of Utilization of Artificial Intelligence Tools for Educational Purposes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46328/ijses.7871Keywords:
Pre-Service Teachers, AI Awareness, AI Utilization, AI for Educational Purposes, AI ToolsAbstract
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in education offers transformative potential for teaching and learning; however, their adoption in Nigerian teacher education remains limited. This study investigates pre-service teachers’ awareness, utilization, and perceived barriers to AI tool use in three Nigerian College of Education. Using a descriptive survey design, data were collected from a sample of 300 pre-service teachers through a questionnaire adapted from Asongo et al. (2024). Descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviations, were employed to analyze the data. Results reveal that pre-service teachers demonstrated high awareness and frequent use of popular AI tools such as ChatGPT (mean = 3.79 for awareness; 3.67 for utilization), while awareness and utilization of other specialized tools were moderate. Most respondents disagreed that ethical concerns, bias, and usability issues pose significant barriers; however, cost and accessibility were identified as notable challenges (mean = 2.52). These findings underscore infrastructural and economic factors as primary impediments to wider AI adoption. The study recommends integrating AI literacy into teacher education curricula, conducting practical training workshops, subsidizing access to AI platforms, improving digital infrastructure, and embedding ethical considerations in AI usage guidelines.
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