How Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used in Creative Learning?: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Analysis in Finnish Kindergarten

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) present unprecedented challenges and opportunities in creative education that focus on developing the ability to make something new and useful. In this study, we conducted an exploratory experiment in a Finnish Kindergarten examining the affective relations between AI and children. AI was embodied using a robotic arm and text-to-image model and positioned as a peer to the children in a series of counter-compositional design exercises. The resulting artifacts and observation data were analyzed using the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, focusing on speaking as an associative action for creative learning. The study’s results indicate that AI can be perceived as a member of the community instead of a tool in the learning activity system. The presence of an AI peer tended to foster more speech among the children and teachers, which can lead to creative learning. However, the AI was not as effective as the presence of a human peer due to the contradiction between the actual and perceived objectives of the AI in the learning system. In addition, we identified the importance of the role of the teacher and storytelling in creating the conditions for creative learning. We theorized a human-AI hybrid system for learning where the pedagogy of the teachers and the narrative and empathetic capabilities of the AI play an essential role in the children’s creative capacity development.