RAPID: Empowering Future Teachers with Generative AI Education: Understanding Applications, Risks, and Limits

生成性人工智能(AI)工具有可能重塑教育，并可能改变K-12的教学实践。因此，教师必须让学生具备必要的技能，使他们能够学习这些工具，并在他们的生活和教育中有效地使用它们。该项目将试行一门采用新教育方法的课程，帮助职前教师了解生成性人工智能的基本原理及其潜在的教学应用。这包括帮助他们发展批判性思维技能，以有效地判断生成性人工智能在课堂实施方面的局限性和承受能力。这项建议是为了回应尊敬的同事信函(DCL)：在正式和非正式环境中迅速加速K-12教育中人工智能的研究(NSF 23-097)，并由学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划资助，该计划支持一些项目，这些项目建立对实践、计划元素、情境过程的理解，有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。该项目将研究试点课程对发展职前教师能力的影响，包括使用生成性人工智能的知识、技能和态度。本研究将以两个研究问题为指导：1)课程实施如何影响职前教师使用生成性人工智能工具支持课堂教学的知识和态度？2)职前教师认为生成性人工智能工具在支持教与学方面发挥了什么作用，包括其局限性和风险？使用混合方法，研究人员将调查职前教师是否以及如何在自己的学习和未来教学准备中利用生成性人工智能工具。在项目结束时，研究成果和开源课程材料将被广泛传播，供其他教师教育教师适应他们自己的课程。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have the potential to reshape education and may change teaching practices in K-12. As such, teachers must prepare students to have the necessary skills that will allow them to learn about these tools and use them productively for their lives and education. This project will pilot a curriculum with new educational methods in preparing pre-service teachers in understanding the fundamentals of generative AI and its potential teaching applications. This includes helping them develop the critical thinking skills to effectively judge generative AI's limitations and affordances in relation to classroom implementation. This proposal was received in response to the Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Rapidly Accelerating Research on Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education in Formal and Informal Settings (NSF 23-097), and funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.The project will examine the impact of the piloting curriculum on developing pre-service teachers' competencies including knowledge, skills, and attitudes in using generative AI. The research will be guided by two research questions: 1) How does the implementation of the curriculum impact pre-service teachers' knowledge and attitudes to use generative AI tools to support classroom instruction?; 2) What role do pre-service teachers see for generative AI tools in supporting teaching and learning, including its limitations and risks? Using a mixed-methods approach, researchers will investigate whether and how pre-service teachers leverage generative AI tools in their own learning and preparation for future teaching. At the conclusion of the project, research findings and open-source curriculum materials will be widely disseminated for other teacher education faculty to adapt for their own coursework.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.