An overwhelming majority of teachers, principals, and district leaders in the U.S. believe students should learn how artificial intelligence works at some point in their K-12 education, according to survey data recently released by the EdWeek Research Center.
According to the survey, nearly nine in 10 educators believe that students should learn how AI works in a developmentally appropriate way before they graduate from high school.
These survey results show how quickly AI has emerged as a need-to-know topic in K-12 education.
So at what age should K-12 students start learning about AI? Opinions among educators vary depending on the grade level they teach and whether they are a classroom teacher or administrator.
6% of educators say this topic should not be taught at higher education level, and another 6% say AI should never be taught. Most (65%) say it should be introduced to middle or high school students.
This is reassuring, considering how artificial intelligence is poised to transform both K-12 education and the workforce, said Pat Yongpradit, chief academic officer at code.org and director of TeachAI, an initiative that helps schools use and teach AI. He said it was a discoverable discovery. .
Alex Harwin, a research analyst at the EdWeek Research Center, said that with a few notable exceptions, when survey responses are broken down by position, teachers' views in most cases align with those of administrators.
“If you look at district leaders and school leaders, a quarter of them are committed to introducing artificial intelligence in third grade. “Until 5 o’clock,” he said. But only 14% of teachers agreed.”
But interestingly, the survey shows that there are different perspectives among teachers depending on the age group they teach.
For example, administrators were more likely than teachers overall to say students should start learning about AI in elementary school, but elementary school teachers were just as likely as school and district leaders to say students in grades 3 through 5 should learn about AI. I did.
26% of elementary school teachers said students should begin learning about AI in grades 3 to 5, compared to 11% of middle school teachers and 8% of high school teachers.
Yongpradit said this is something she sees all the time among elementary school teachers. Most educators and people in general may think this is a middle school and high school level topic, but there is an overabundance of enthusiasm for teaching computer science and technology.
“here it is. What is the role of an elementary school teacher? Provide the basics – they are always thinking about basic skills,” Yongpradit said. “So in the same way, this data shows that primary school teachers are much more keen to introduce and teach their students how AI works early on because of its role in the education system. They understand that this needs to be taught early.”
But research suggests that one reason for the differing perspectives between administrators and teachers overall may be that teachers feel overwhelmed by having to add another task to their plates.
“There is also a very small but statistically significant percentage of teachers, 8%, who believe AI should be taught in college/post-secondary education. That means they do not want to teach AI, compared to 1% of local leaders and 4% of colleges/universities. School leaders,” Harwin said.
Does teacher fatigue give rise to opinions about when to introduce AI to children?
Some of these perspectives on when to introduce AI to K-12 students may be driven in part by teachers feeling overwhelmed by their current jobs, the survey found.
The EdWeek Research Center asked educators whether they or teachers in their schools have the time or bandwidth to teach students how to think about and use artificial intelligence.
78% said no, they and their teachers do not have the bandwidth because their plates are overloaded with academic concerns, social-emotional learning priorities, safety concerns, and more. Among teachers alone, the percentage was even higher at 82%.
“People were saying, ‘Our plates are full, we can’t make room for AI,’” Harwin said. “That's why some teachers are saying, 'We have enough on our plates, let's get higher education.' People take care of it.’”
So what can we do about teacher AI fatigue?
Yongpradit said new AI tools should help ease the pressure that makes teachers feel like they don't have time to teach students how artificial intelligence works by finding ways to solve real-world teaching challenges they face every day.
“These survey results serve only as a reminder that curriculum providers, professional development providers and tool developers need to start with teachers’ challenges and goals,” he said. “Rather than trying to start with something new and innovative, it’s AI that doesn’t necessarily match teachers’ everyday reality.”