2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Recent technological advancements have led to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) applications like Bard and ChatGPT. Consequently, these applications of AI and others have proliferated aspects of daily life. Notably, there is a growing interest in incorporating AI to enhance K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research. To be effectively integrated, however, AI usage needs to align with teachers’ existing STEM curriculum and pedagogy. In essence, the extent to which AI will be deployed in future classrooms will heavily depend on teachers' perceptions of its utility within the STEM education context. STEM teachers’ attitudes, expectations, and perceived challenges regarding AI can significantly influence their willingness to adopt AI-integrated instruction approaches. Identifying and categorizing teachers’ beliefs, motivational factors, and areas of concern will provide practical insights for STEM curriculum designers, professional developers, and policymakers. This study investigates these possible directions through a lens of major established models of integrated STEM education. Although extensive research has been done on integrating AI with STEM, work is lacking that translates this concept into concrete entry points for integration. To address this gap, this research uses a systematic literature review (SLR) approach focusing on preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) perceptions of AI in STEM education. Using the PRISMA model, we gathered related empirical, peer-reviewed articles published from 2020 to 2024. Of the 250 initial studies, 26 met our eventual criteria. Content analyses of these surveys revealed several aspects that may be used to further understand PSTs' perspectives on AI's involvement and potential usage in integrated STEM. Firstly, their competency using AI tools appears to greatly influence their attitude toward AI-integrated STEM pedagogy. Second, their perceptions of AI's effectiveness, utility, and ethics seem to significantly impact their willingness to adopt AI for classroom usage. Lastly, research suggests that PSTs recognize both the benefits, like improving student engagement and personalized learning, and the challenges posed by technical difficulties or the complexity of interspersing these technologies in their STEM classrooms. As such, teacher education related to meaningfully using AI tools is an important focus of integrating AI. Teachers must be skilled and confident in using AI tools in their classrooms, while also able to recognize its limitations and potential pitfalls. PSTs, therefore, need access to targeted AI resources and opportunities for application within their STEM pedagogy courses. Meeting these goals means providing teacher educators and researchers with ongoing support to advance the integration of AI into K-12 STEM education.
Keywords: STEM education, artificial intelligence, pre-service teacher, systematic literature review