Ani Epitropova
Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” (Bulgaria)
https://doi.org/10.53656/ped2025-7.06
Abstract. This study aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse by examining the subject-specific integration of AI, focusing on how prospective teachers perceive, engage with, and adapt these tools to create personalized and differentiated science learning experiences. The aim of this study is to explore the factors influencing the attitudes of prospective primary teachers toward using ChatGPT in primary science teaching. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to ensure comprehensive analysis in this study. Data on preservice teachers’ attitudes, shaped by emotional, cognitive, and experiential factors, and on the potential application of ChatGPT-3.5 in education were collected through two questionnaires and a detailed analysis of documents containing differentiated learning tasks prepared by preservice teachers. The step-by-step sequence of the intervention and the results are described. The results gathered in the process of the study indicate that the factors determining preservice teachers’ attitudes towards Al can be categorized into four major groups as follows emotional, cognitive and experiential influences as well as potential barriers, each of which is divided into sub-factors categorized in the study. The study explains and highlights the interplay and interdependence of these factors in shaping preservice teachers’ readiness to integrate Al into elementary science education. From a research perspective the results of this study may encourage arousing research on the use of AI for educational purposes in various sociocultural environments, as well as the development of university-based professional development programs for in-service and pre-service teachers that are tailored to the characteristics of different subject-specific didactics.
Keywords: GenAI; ChatGPT; primary science education; instructional design; pre-service teachers
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