Application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in tvet education: Ethical issues and policy implementation

The adoption of generative AI in educational process carries both potential advantages and risks hence there is a need for ethical principles to guide its adoption in education. A population of 443 TVET educators, including 325 male and 118 female, was selected for this study using a mixed research design from the seven TVET public institutions in south-eastern Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses. The instruments used for data collection were a structured questionnaire and a guided interview developed by the researchers in line with the research questions. The Cronbach Alpha reliability test, which produced a reliability index of 0.9, was used to determine the internal consistency. Mean, standard deviation, factor loading and t-test were used to evaluate the data, and an independent t-test with a significance level of 0.05 was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study indicated that TVET educators agreed that AI technology is an effective educational technology, there is a need for ethical principles to ensure data privacy, data integrity, data reliability, data transparency and data accuracy are not compromised. Also, TVET educators agreed that the adoption of AI technology in the educational process improves academic performance, increases learning engagement, and supports classroom inclusion and personalized learning. It was recommended that tertiary institutions broaden their current AI policies in light of the findings of this study to support the successful integration of AI technology into the educational process.