I began my PhD studies in January 2023 under the supervision of Dr Sue Sentance.
This project is situated broadly within AI education in K-12. However, my main focus is teachers’ motivation and preparedness to teach AI concepts in schools. To achieve this, I plan to conduct three studies which focus on investigating computing teachers’ motivation and their preparedness to teach AI in the UK using theoretical frameworks such as self-determination and self-efficacy theories. Secondly, I will investigate how AI is being introduced in schools in Ghana through a qualitative case study design. Lastly, I plan to design a hypothetical learning trajectory as a step-by-step guide for teachers for teaching about machine learning concepts such as neural networks in schools.
At the end of my studies, I hope to provide insights into how teachers feel motivated and prepared to teach AI in schools and the kind of interventions that can potentially support them to teach AI in schools.
In 2020, the Ministry of Education in Ghana introduced a new computing curriculum into schools to replace the old curriculum which was solely focused on Information Communication Technology (ICT) concepts. Some of the new computing concepts introduced into schools are programming, robotics, algorithms and AI. I conducted a case study in January 2024 to understand how AI is being introduced into Junior High Schools in Ghana.
Currently, I am analysing the data collected from my case study. These data include teacher interviews, interviews with curriculum developers, documents and classroom observations. My objective is to understand the landscape of AI education in Ghana and design interventions where necessary to support teachers to effectively teach AI in schools.
In 2023, I conducted a study involving eight computing teachers in England. My goal was to understand their motivation and preparedness to teach AI in schools. Although AI has not yet been introduced in the computing curriculum in England, my results show that the teachers within my sample are intrinsically motivated to teach AI in schools and that they would need more professional development targeted at equipping them with both the content and pedagogical content knowledge of AI to teach effectively.
Addo, S. A., & Sentance, S. (2023, December). Teachers’ motivation for teaching AI in K-12 settings. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Human Centered Artificial Intelligence: Education and Practice (pp. 43-43). (Open-access author copy)