The Possibilities and Challenges of Using AI Chatbots in Teacher Education: An Example of Project-Based STEM Learning

The purpose on this study is to analyse possibilities and challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in teacher education to support future chemistry teachers project-based STEM learning. The analysis is conducted via the SWOT method that enables amazing internal and external possibilities and challenges. The data consist of real student projects, where future chemistry teachers were assigned to design and build chemistry measurement devices for chemistry educational purposes. The topic is important because AI chatbots might be the missing resource that speeds up the technology education to a rate which enables implementation of more authentic technological solutions to education (Kuhail et al., 2023). This study builds on the earlier research done in our research group. For the past few years we have been mapping the possibilities and challenges of STEM education via multiple chemistry educational contexts such as engineering single-board computer applications (SBC) (Ambrož et al., 2023) and cheminformatics (Pernaa, 2022). The key findings from our previous work are that STEM in general offers endless possibilities for chemistry education but there are few major challenges. One of the most central challenges are the multidisciplinary nature of STEM projects – projects demand multiple knowledge domains such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer sciences etc. Project learning contexts are often designed around technology which is new for students. In addition, there are practical limitations. For example, usually these projects are conducted as a single course that offers only 135 work hours (5 ECTS). Courses are often packed with content and the learning of some parts remain quite superficial. Especially developing the software and designing the hardware for applications is very demanding for chemistry students who usually have zero experience from coding or electronic engineering. To solve this challenge, we suggest that the technological component of the STEM education may be outsourced for AI solutions such as chatbots to ensure more work hours to think and learn the chemistry behind the device and use it for pedagogically meaningful way.

References
Ambrož, M., Pernaa, J., Haatainen, O., & Aksela, M. (2023). Promoting STEM Education of Future Chemistry Teachers with an Engineering Approach Involving Single-Board Computers. Applied Sciences, 13(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13053278
Kuhail, M. A., Alturki, N., Alramlawi, S., & Alhejori, K. (2023). Interacting with educational chatbots: A systematic review. Education and Information Technologies, 28(1), 973–1018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11177-3
Pernaa, J. (2022). Possibilities and Challenges of Using Educational Cheminformatics for STEM Education: A SWOT Analysis of a Molecular Visualization Engineering Project. Journal of Chemical Education, 99(3), 1190–1200. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00683