Advancing AI education: Assessing Kenyan in-service teachers' preparedness for integrating artificial intelligence in competence-based curriculum

Abstract

With the advancement of technology, emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) have also been growing rapidly and becoming more common than ever before. Kenya has taken tremendous steps in adopting the use of emerging technology in different sectors of the economy. In realization of the need to have a skilled digital workforce to develop solutions using these emerging technologies, Kenya has undertaken curriculum reforms and introduced the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) which has included digital literacy and coding in elementary school. Furthermore, computer science has been introduced in Junior Secondary School. In view of these changes, teachers should be adequately prepared with knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively teach these new technologies. However, in Kenya, AI was not and still is not part of the teacher training curriculum. Additionally, there are inadequate professional development opportunities in AI for both pre-service and in-service teachers since AI is not part of the CBC curriculum. That notwithstanding, it is inevitable for teachers in the current world to introduce AI to learners. Therefore, this study's objectives were to assess the confidence in AI, attitudes toward AI, AI ethics, subjective norms, perceived threats, and the readiness to teach AI among Kenyan K-12 in-service teachers and to assess how these factors influence their readiness to teach AI. To achieve these objectives, this study employed a quantitative research methodology by administering a survey using Google Forms to a random sample of 308 teachers from different grades from 37 out of 47 counties in Kenya. The findings showed that confidence in AI, AI ethics and subjective norms significantly influenced AI readiness while attitude towards AI and perceived threats did not significantly influence AI readiness. These results are significant in providing a basis for education policy change on AI education in Kenya, such as transforming the teacher training curriculum to include AI and designing AI professional development programs for in-service teachers to ensure they are well-equipped to teach AI.