Are Preservice Teachers “Totally PACKaged”? A Quantitative Study of Pre-service Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills to Ethically Integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Tools into Education

Advancements in modern technologies have resulted in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of education. It is imperative that educators are knowledgeable and skilled with various AI-based tools. However, little is known about the extent of the knowledge and skills of preservice teachers in utilizing AI-based tools in education or about the extent of their ethical considerations when using AI-based tools. Preservice teachers are the vanguard of 21st century teaching and it is important that they have the capacity to incorporate technology into pedagogy. This study employed a descriptive-quantitative-correlational approach to determine the extent of knowledge and skills of 212 preservice teachers in using AI-based tools, as well as the extent of the respondents’ ethical considerations in utilizing AI-based tools in education, with the use of the Intelligent-TPACK survey form adapted from Celik (2023). The data gathered were analyzed through descriptive analysis, namely mean, standard deviation and percentage, as well as inferential statistics of Pearson bivariate correlation to determine if there was a significant interrelationship among technological knowledge (TK), technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), technological content knowledge (TCK) and technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). The results revealed that preservice teachers possess high levels of TK, TPK, TCK, and TPACK. Furthermore, the participants are capable of skillfully utilizing technology into teaching, which indicates that preservice teachers are up to date with the trends in artificial intelligence. In addition, the participants were revealed to have high levels of ethical consideration in utilizing AI-based tools, where they can discern which tools will be best in improving the students’ works and give fair feedback in assessing the works of the students. Finally, significant interrelationships among TK, TPK, TCK, and TPACK were also found, in which competency in one component also equates to competency in other components.