From Tool Overload to Instructional Alignment: Developing Pre-Service Teachers’ Digital and AI Teaching Competence

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the perceptual changes experienced by pre-service teachers as they derived the final products of lesson plans using generative AI, and to explore educational implications for enhancing their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Methods For this purpose, a preliminary training on the educational use of generative AI was conducted for 20 students in a teacher education course at A Education Graduate School in Seoul. Subsequently, the students explored applicable lesson design strategies for various subjects and reflected on these processes and experiences through mid-term assignments, which were then qualitatively analyzed based on the TPACK framework. Results Firstly, pre-service teachers recognized the educational utility of selecting and using generative AI tools aligned with educational objectives and confirmed their potential as tools for delivering subject content. Secondly, through experiencing the limitations of generative AI, they recognized the importance of carefully integrating technology and cultivating digital and AI literacy among teachers. It was found that their repeated and experimental approaches to lesson design contributed to the enhancement of problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Thirdly, pre-service teachers who were initially hesitant to use generative AI developed a positive perception and showed a willingness to use it more extensively in lesson design. Lastly, they were able to effectively integrate elements of generative AI and TPACK, developing new and innovative customized teaching methods and strategies suitable for each subject, and expanded their educational thinking and perspectives by experiencing lesson design cases from fellow pre-service teachers. Conclusions Teacher training institutions should develop and operate more practical curricula that include excellent examples of technology-integrated classes and practical exercises. Additionally, the curriculum should include content that simulates real issues encountered while using generative AI, and develop customized professional courses that facilitate the systematic integration of generative AI according to each major.

This study examined pre-service social studies teachers’ experiences in AI-aided global issues exploration using generative AI in teacher education courses. Adopting a mixed-method research approach, quantitative and qualitative analysis were conducted on the reports created by 66 pre-service teachers majoring in social studies at four teacher education universities, who participated in the “Exploring Global Issues Using Generative AI” program. The findings show that the international issues that pre-service teachers sought to explore through generative AI tended to converge on topics with high timeliness and strong regional proximity. In the AI-generated textual and visual outputs, four prominent characteristics were identified: neutrality, selectivity, bias, and hallucination. While the pre-service teachers recognized the educational utility of generative AI in providing synthesized and structured information, rapid image generation, and interactive support for deeper inquiry, they also pointed out limitations such as informational inaccuracy, implicit bias, and the risk of uncritical acceptance of AI outputs. Furthermore, the neutral stance of generative AI on politically sensitive topics and its differential responses depending on question formulation highlighted the need for AI literacy education. This study draws critical attention to the pedagogical potential of generative AI in social studies and provides practical insights for future AI-integrated teacher education programs.

Despite abundant research on the pedagogical benefits of generative AI (GenAI) in ELT, teachers’ agentive use of GenAI in an instructional context has not been fully explored. How pre-service teachers utilize GenAI in teacher-training courses also remains unclear. Thus, grounded in the framework of teacher agency and professional development, this study explored pre-service English teachers’ perceptions of engaging in a GenAI-enhanced lesson design project. Thematic analysis of interviews and reflection papers from eighteen pre-service English teachers who participated in lesson design with diverse GenAI tools revealed their agentive use of GenAI in two aspects: (1) agentive role in teacher–GenAI collaboration; (2) responsible GenAI use to address its constraints. The findings highlight the importance of pre-service teacher agency in leveraging GenAI for ELT. Pedagogical implications for training pre-service teachers in GenAI literacy are discussed.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigated how undergraduate and graduate students in a teacher education program perceived, used, and ethically reflected upon generative AI tools. The problem is the unclear state of preservice teachers’ understanding and use of generative AI in educational settings, which this study aimed to explain. Background: Given generative AI’s growing presence in education, this study addressed a gap in understanding by examining preservice teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and ethical concerns, particularly in relation to self-regulated learning. Methodology: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used to gather quantitative and qualitative data from 73 students enrolled in a teacher education program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. Contribution: This study contributes to the emerging literature by providing insights into preservice teachers’ usage patterns of generative AI, the relationship between AI use and self-regulatory skills, and a detailed examination of ethical concerns, informing effective AI integration into teacher education programs. Findings: Text-based generative AI was the most familiar tool among participants. The primary reasons for the use included editing papers, searching for new ideas, and understanding course material. A significant positive correlation was identified between information search with the help of generative AI and resource management skill. Key themes identified by thematic analysis included perceived benefits for student engagement and creativity, AI’s potential as a writing assistant, and ethical concerns about plagiarism and misuse. Overall, preservice teachers demonstrated surface-level use and a general lack of in-depth knowledge about AI integration. Recommendations for Practitioners: Teacher educators should provide explicit training in generative AI, including practical guidelines and clear ethical frameworks to foster effective and responsible integration into classroom practice. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers should develop validated measurement instruments specifically designed for studying generative AI perceptions and usage and explore longitudinal impacts as preservice teachers transition into professional teaching roles. Impact on Society: By guiding preservice teachers toward informed and ethical use of generative AI, this study supports broader societal goals of promoting digital literacy, ethical technology integration, and enhanced learning experiences for future generations. Future Research: Subsequent research should further explore reasons behind the limited adoption of generative AI among preservice teachers, examine the long-term impacts of AI use on pedagogical practices, and investigate structured frameworks for promoting deeper AI integration within the teaching and learning domain.

As generative AI (GAI) tools become increasingly embedded in educational contexts, understanding their intersection with learner autonomy is critical—particularly in teacher education. This study explores the evolving synergy between pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) use of GAI tools and their heutagogical orientations, with attention to disciplinary differences. A quantitative analysis was conducted with 181 PSTs (103 from Humanities and 78 from Math and Science), who completed a validated questionnaire based on Blaschke’s four core principles of heutagogy. Results indicate a positive relationship between GAI usage and heutagogical orientation, with Humanities PSTs reporting significantly higher levels of self-regulated and reflective learning principles. While the overall frequency of GAI use did not differ by discipline, its pedagogical implications did: linguistic applications (e.g., writing assistance, translation) were more strongly associated with reflection and metacognition among Humanities students, whereas multimedia-based GAI usage correlated with enhanced problem-solving confidence, reflecting the self-efficacy principle, across both groups. Notably, the cybergogy principle—autonomous learning in digital environments—emerged as most closely linked to GAI engagement, particularly among Humanities participants. Age and program track also influenced outcomes, with younger and secondary-track PSTs demonstrating greater adaptability to digital learning. These findings suggest that while GAI tools are broadly accessible, their transformative potential in teacher education depends on aligning technological integration with disciplinary cultures and learner agency. Fostering this synergy requires teacher education programs to support not only digital fluency but also reflective, self-determined learning across diverse educational contexts.

M easurement community, be careful what you wish for.

The rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in education has significantly influenced how future educators perceive teaching, learning, and professional practice. This phenomenological case study explores the cognitive representations of Generative AI among pre-service teachers enrolled in a public sector teacher education college in Karachi, Pakistan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 pre-service teachers, and the data were analysed thematically to capture participants’ lived experiences, metaphors, and meaning-making processes related to Generative AI. The findings reveal that pre-service teachers cognitively represent Generative AI through humanised metaphors such as a helping hand, teacher, friend, and guide, reflecting its perceived supportive and facilitative role in learning and academic work. At the same time, participants expressed concerns regarding over-dependence, cognitive decline, reduced creativity, and the potential weakening of critical thinking skills. The study further highlights a conditionally optimistic outlook toward the future of education, with participants emphasizing that the benefits of Generative AI are contingent upon ethical, balanced, and reflective use. These findings underscore the need for teacher education programs to integrate critical AI literacy, ethical awareness, and reflective pedagogical practices to support responsible and meaningful engagement with Generative AI.

As generative AI (GenAI) becomes an integral component of the socio-technical landscape in teaching and learning, it is crucial for teacher education programs to prepare pre-service teachers to assess its affordances and limitations. However, research on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward GenAI is still emerging. Understanding these perspectives is essential for informing teacher education programs about where pre-service teachers stand and how to advance their AI literacy. This article explores pre-service teachers’ understanding and application of GenAI for their envisioned future classrooms. We collected data from pre-service teachers at a Midwestern United States public university, analyzing 17 survey responses quantitatively and conducting qualitative analyses of eight interviews and two lesson design challenge case studies. Our findings indicate that pre-service teachers generally held positive views about GenAI, particularly in terms of its potential for lesson planning, resource creation, and reducing workload. However, they expressed concerns about students’ over-reliance on AI, which they thought could potentially undermine teacher-student interactions. Furthermore, the study found that pre-service teachers identified limitations while using ChatGPT for lesson design and recognized its shortcomings, especially when they had strong content knowledge.

Pre-service teachers’ agency during their interactions with generative AI while designing for learning – a process view on Intelligent-TPACK

This thesis contributes to the understanding of an important ongoing issue in mathematics education and adds to the literature on ways to address this issue. The study is located against a social and historical background of issues of exclusion from participation in opportunities that are afforded by competence in mathematics. Mathematics anxiety (maths anxiety) in primary pre-service teachers has been reported in the research literature as an ongoing issue. This anxiety can lead to high levels of stress and poor performance and can impact on confidence and emotional and academic wellbeing. Often, proposed solutions have focussed on how pre-service teachers might better learn mathematics. However, research addressing affect has indicated the need for greater emphasis on understanding their emotional responses and anxieties. This thesis reports a descriptive and interpretive sequential mixed method study within the affective domain which investigated the effectiveness of bibliotherapy to better understand and address maths anxiety. The purpose was to understand the impacts of maths anxiety on the mathematical identity of primary pre-service teachers, and how these impacts might be ameliorated. The study investigated questions concerning the range and extent of maths anxiety in pre-service teachers at the start of their teacher education course, their perceptions of the influences that had stimulated this anxiety, and the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in better understanding and/or addressing maths anxiety in pre-service teachers. Data were collected through quantitative and qualitative methods, using the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (Alexander & Martray, 1989) to identify the range and extent of participants’ maths anxiety, and the narrative device of Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to investigate the experiences to which they attributed this anxiety. Participants’ views provided their perceptions of their mathematical identity. The study investigated the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in two different contexts, Cognitive bibliotherapy in existing classes and Interactive bibliotherapy in a small-group workshop developed in collaboration with the student counsellor. The study employed a multi-scope analysis which used a range of methods – descriptive and inferential statistics (t-tests, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses), and analysis of themes identified by the CIT and bibliotherapy in the two different contexts. The study found that pre-service teachers begin their teacher education course with existing levels of maths anxiety, which are largely associated with the negative effects of testing and evaluation. The findings also confirmed the major contribution of former teachers to the development of pre-service teachers’ maths anxiety, drawing attention to the consequences of blame and humiliation reported by participants and to the importance of the concept of pedagogical tact. The study emphasised the benefits of including in this research pre-service teachers who did not identify with maths anxiety in this research. The workshop provided a transformative experience, as participants showed increased understanding and revision of their maths anxiety and identified alternative conceptions of their previous mathematical experiences. Insight was identified as a major factor in the development of participants’ future mathematical identity. This led to evaluations of their future effectiveness as teachers of mathematics, thus illustrating the development of a more positive projective identity. Contributions of the study included the modification of the bibliotherapy stages, development of a key of ideal types for responses and development of a new concept of “biblioperception.” It provided a model for professional collaboration with the student counsellor in the form of the workshop protocol. This thesis argues for a paradigm shift in the way researchers, teacher educators and policy makers view maths anxiety in pre-service teachers. There is a need to identify and celebrate the positive influences that past experiences of maths anxiety can have on evolving more effective teachers in our classrooms, potentially enabling a wider range of students to develop more positive relationships with mathematics. In recognising the potential for pre-service primary teachers’ experiences and understanding of maths anxiety to increase their effectiveness teachers of mathematics, this thesis not only posits a new way of thinking about maths anxiety in pre-service teachers, but also provides insights into how it might be addressed, which would be of interest to both researchers and teacher educators. It also discusses implications and recommendations for future research, education practice and policy.

Background/Context: This paper explores how intersectionality and DisCrit can be used as analytic tools to scaffold preservice teachers’ ability to see the ways in which referrals to and services within special education reproduce inequities as a function of race and perceptions of ability that are rooted in White, middle-class, able-bodied norms. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This qualitative study analyzes White preservice teachers’ understanding and application of intersectionality and DisCrit. Applying critical theoretical perspectives, preservice teachers engage in identifying instances of oppression in society and schools and naming the resulting harm to Black students and families. This paper focuses on the following research questions: How do White preservice teachers engage with critical frameworks intended to unearth the impacts of racism and ableism on Black students? What do their responses reveal about preservice teachers’ level of critical consciousness? Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants in this study were preservice general education teachers in the last semester of coursework of an intensive 12-month master’s program in secondary education at a large predominantly White Midwestern university. This study focuses on four self-identified White able-bodied and one White (dis)abled preservice teacher who represent exemplars of the types of engagement evidenced by preservice teachers within the course. Intervention/Program/Practice: The course that was the site of this study focused on preparing preservice teachers to teach and support Students Identified with (Dis)abilities in middle and high school classrooms. The first portion of the course focused on analyzing the history of racism and ableism in special education using critical frameworks. These class sessions provided preservice teachers with frameworks they could apply to their experiences at their school sites and language they needed to discuss racism and ableism. Research Design: This article reports on a qualitative case study of general education preservice teacher engagement with the critical frameworks of intersectionality and disability critical race theory (DisCrit) in a predominantly White teacher education program. Data Collection and Analysis: For the duration of the course, video recordings of whole group discussions and audio recordings of small group discussions were collected. Descriptive and in vivo coding were employed during the first level of coding to closely highlight participants’ perspectives that were rooted in their own language. The second level of analysis captured the content of the ideas expressed by preservice teachers when engaging and employing critical frameworks, and the third level of analysis captured preservice teacher engagement in ways that demonstrated either active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection of course material. Findings/Results: There is a fluidity in which preservice teachers move through levels of engagement (active adoption, quiet adoption, resistant engagement, or resistant deflection) when explicitly taught critical frameworks to help them identify and disrupt inequity, in this case, racism and ableism in schools. For example, a preservice teacher may experience dissonance when there is misalignment between their previously held assumptions and new learning. At first, they may resist this knowledge and then adopt new perspectives over time. They may also go back and forth between resistance and adoption, or they may remain resistant throughout the course. Additionally, a preservice teacher may actively adopt course content and frameworks that align with their previous orientations and quietly or actively adopt new frameworks over time. Conclusions/Recommendations: Teaching critical frameworks is an important tool to understanding preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity. Choosing critical frameworks that undergird teacher education courses supports the development of objectives that are antiracist/antiableist. It also provides teacher educators guidance in choosing materials/artifacts that will encourage preservice teachers to discuss the implications of those frameworks. Critical frameworks provide a method of helping preservice teachers see inequity that aspects of their privilege render invisible and provide an assessment tool for teacher educators to analyze preservice teachers’ orientations toward inequity and how this manifests in their orientation toward students of historically marginalized groups.

Educational systems in Scandinavia have long been concerned with Bildung in relation to digital technologies. The rise of generative AI (GenAI) has renewed this attention as GenAI reshapes how learners engage with knowledge, culture and society. This study explores how teacher educators conceptualize Bildung and respond to challenges posed by GenAI in teacher education. Through reflexive thematic analysis, framed by interpretative repertoires, we explore 20 semi-structured interviews with teacher educators and analyze their discursive understandings of Bildung and GenAI. We identified three Bildung repertoires: Individual Bildung (individual becoming), Social/Societal Bildung (growth through encountering the ‘other’), and Teacher-Professional Bildung (professional becoming). These repertoires frame Bildung as a relational, reflective, value-based process, challenged by efficiency-driven educational discourses and GenAI’s affordances. Teacher educators also articulated three GenAI repertoires: phenomenological (the illusion of meaning-making), epistemological (blurring distinctions between information and knowledge) and ontological (disrupting human being and agency). Teacher educators expressed ambivalence, perceiving GenAI as both a threat to Bildung ideals and a catalyst for renewed reflection on educational purposes. We propose that teacher education and schools address GenAI as a phenomenon, foster epistemological awareness, and engage with ontological questions about being and becoming in a digital age.

Introduction An important component of learning to teach involves integrating the theoretical framework developed in teacher-education courses with practical experience in schools. Institutions offering initial teacher-education programmes acknowledge that this endeavour constitutes a challenge during their work with teachers (Kane, 2005). For teacher educators, making these connections also requires that what prospective teachers are learning incorporates new ideas about knowledge, encompasses understanding of current research on and learning and addresses the needs of a different generation of students in the 21st century. While meeting these objectives, educators must also counter claims that teacher-education programmes are too theoretical, inaccessible and unrelated to the real world of the classroom (see, for example, Cameron, 2004; Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, 2002; Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching, as cited in Vick, 2006). Situated learning for preservice teachers in New Zealand occurs during practicums over a limited number of weeks. They must then draw on this experience during discussions of pedagogy and curriculum in their teacher-education classes. School-based practice is a constructive professional learning experience when the preservice teachers' course work underpins the practicum, and they have the opportunity not only to implement pedagogy and knowledge of learning, but also to reflect on their practice and receive feedback from associate teachers (teachers in secondary schools with responsibility for mentoring teachers). In other situations, experiences for preservice teachers are less successful. The demands of today's busy school environment can mean that teachers do not receive the degree of support from associate teachers that they need or would like (White, 2006). Further concerns for teacher educators are highlighted in findings of a review of New Zealand research regarding the practicum that suggest student teachers do not necessarily learn to teach in ways that research would define as quality teaching (Cameron & Baker, 2004, p. 69). This is reinforced by the findings of a series of studies located in secondary schools (Haigh & Ward, 2004) in which visions of associate teachers working (with teachers) in social constructivist and collaborative frameworks were only partially realised (p. 145). Case-based is one methodological tool that has been advocated since the late 1980s to help teacher educators bridge the theory-practice divide (Merseth, 1996; L. Shulman, 1992, 2004). Cases that contain attributes of both theory and practice enable preservice teachers to examine complex real-life classroom situations outside the school and to practise thinking like a teacher (Kleinfeld, 1992; J. Shulman, 1992). When situated in professional education courses, the use of cases also has the potential to bring about cognitive change in prospective teachers and thereby help reform pedagogical practices (Sykes & Bird, 1992; Wasserman, 1994). This article reports on a case study examination of case-based in a New Zealand teacher-education course for preservice history teachers. The intent of part of the teacher-education course was to provide these teachers with cases, in which they themselves were participants, that would allow them to (i) examine the pedagogical and subject-related issues arising from secondary school history, (ii) develop their pedagogical content knowledge and (iii) make links between current educational theory and research and their experiences. The article begins by discussing the literature relating to case-based with preservice teachers and to learning in a community of professional colleagues. A description of the study, and an elaboration of the students' group-based examination and critical analysis of each case, follows. …

Dance education is an integral aspect of the Arts curriculum as it offers numerous physical, social, emotional and cognitive benefits. Regardless of the many benefits, dance education is often excluded from the primary school classroom curriculum, even though it is a compulsory key learning area. The main reason behind its exclusion includes many contextual factors, most importantly, teacher self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1997), teacher self-efficacy forms during the early years of teaching and once developed, is resistant to change. Therefore, tertiary institutions can play a major role in the development of teacher self-efficacy. This study identifies the impact of university dance education experiences on the perceived self-efficacy of preservice teachers. A qualitative dominant mixed methods research design was utilised with participants from four initial teacher education courses, across universities in Sydney, Australia. Data were collected from each group, on a collective cohort of preservice primary teachers (N=208) using, document analysis, pre- and post-surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observations. The findings in this study represent the impact of current university dance pedagogical approaches on teacher perceived self-efficacy. Results show that all participants had a preconceived belief about the teaching of dance education. The preservice teacher perceptions, insights, and experiences, provide important contributions to extend on present understandings from the literature with regard to (a) how universities address these preconceptions of dance education, (b) what pedagogical approaches are utilised to cause a shift in self-efficacy, and (c) what specific factors influence the self-efficacy levels of the primary preservice teachers. The preservice teachers in this study attributed positive feedback, tutor influence, interactive teaching models, and practical learning strategies, specifically opportunities for performance and group collaboration, as critical to positively shifting self-efficacy for teaching dance. Based on the findings from this study, universities regardless of the time allocated to dance education, are integral in shifting negative perceptions of dance by creating positive learning environments and providing effective role models. This data offered insight into addressing the main research question: How do current dance education courses at university affect the perceived self-efficacy of preservice teachers? These results will have the potential to inform those involved in policy development, course structure, and Dance teacher education, on whether university dance courses have the capacity to build robust teacher self-efficacy to ensure the likelihood that dance education will be incorporated in the primary classroom and generalist teachers will feel confident teaching it.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore how pre-service health teachers had engaged with Generative AI for their learning at the course of Educational Sociology in the Teacher Preparation program. Methods The author collected the weekly logs and assignments conducted by 17 pre-service health teachers enrolled in the course “Educational Sociology” about their uses of generative AI for learning throughout the semester. Additionally, the study includes observations and recordings of their presentations and discussions on the uses of generative AI based on their learning experiences during the course. The collected data were analyzed using a step-by-step procedure with N-vivo. Results The pre-service health teachers in this course engaged with generative AI to comprehend and deepen their understanding of the learning material. Through conversations and discussions with generative AI, they were able to expand their thoughts on the subject matter. Additionally, the pre-service health teachers improved their writing skills with the assistance of generative AI and actively employed it for exploring resources. Conclusions In university teacher training courses, generative AI can be utilized as a tool for personalized questions without the constraints of time and space, a counterpart for in-depth conversations about course content and discussions on issues, a writing tutor, and a resource exploration tool. Furthermore, this study proposes strategies for enhancing pre-service teachers' competencies in adopting generative AI. Through actively engaging with generative AI in their own learning processes, they not only developed their abilities to use generative AI but also reflected on the possibilities and limitations they should possess as future teachers.