Technology continues to advance today, allowing the rising use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In an attempt to keep up with these 21st-century trends, Kenya has changed the education system, introducing the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) to promote the acquisition of skills relevant to the 21st century. CBC embraces the use of digital literacy and coding in the curriculum, posing our blog’s question: Are teachers in our Kenyan schools fully prepared for integrating AI into the CBC in Kenya?
Fundi, M., Sanusi, I., et al researched Kenyan in-service teachers’ preparedness for integrating artificial intelligence into the competency-based curriculum. This blog provides insights into the findings of the research paper. Their study, published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports Journal, argues that it is vital to know whether or not teachers are prepared to teach AI because their preparedness affects how well they will implement AI education. The Kenyan government has been implementing CBC since 2017. Since it was a reform that aimed to equip our students with skills to cope with the evolving digital world, digital literacy became an area of interest incorporating coding with Scratch in the new curriculum, data handling and programming.
The study collected teachers’ perspectives from 37 counties of Kenya including Kilifi and Kwale, measuring their levels of preparedness to teach AI. The findings demonstrated that teachers’ confidence towards AI was moderate which shows that there is a gradual uptake of the use of AI by teachers. Additionally, their attitude towards AI was quite positive and a moderate agreement with the ethical aspects of AI. The paper also discovers that the attitude towards AI is driven by certain factors including location and how people around educators such as seniors perceive AI. Hence, while most teachers are ready to integrate AI into their teaching, there is still a varying ability in readiness.
Confidence towards AI, AI ethics and subjective norms were the key factors that this study found to be most influential to teachers’ preparedness to teach AI. For instance, if the perception of AI by the education stakeholders around teachers is negative, they will likely not be keen to learn and integrate AI. This demonstrates the importance of education stakeholders to be abreast of the current trends, how they affect education and how best they can be used to improve education.
Since the study identified the above three factors as the major determinants of teachers’ preparedness to teach AI, it suggested that first, teachers’ confidence in AI should be enhanced. This could be done through education and professional development programs that allow teachers to adapt to and embrace AI.
Additionally, creating awareness about AI ethics would help teachers support the ethical and responsible use and development of AI. When there is enough awareness of AI, subjective norms by other stakeholders, including colleagues and administrators, will be changed. When these stakeholders embrace a collaborative approach to AI integration in schools, teachers will feel more supported, hence fostering more preparedness on their end.
Finally, they propose that the teacher training curricula should be reviewed and AI included to enable the teachers’ preparedness to teach AI.
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Written by Faith Wanja.
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