Preservice Teachers’ Use of ChatGPT to Lesson Plan

• In Event: Preservice Teachers and Generative AI: Impacts on AI Literacy, Instructional Design, and Critical Thinking

Abstract

Generative AI technologies like ChatGPT are increasingly seen as a means to support teachers in their professional practice. To leverage ChatGPT effectively, however, educators require training and support. This pilot study explores how pre-service teachers (PSTs) used ChatGPT to plan math lessons following a single training session in prompt engineering and output discernment. Interviews revealed that PSTs used ChatGPT in three ways: idea generation, idea refinement and elaboration, and feedback. Findings showed that PSTs viewed ChatGPT’s responses critically, considering ChatGPT’s output as something to work with, rather than a final product to submit. The results show that ChatGPT can be successfully integrated into an authentic assignment in an elementary math methods class when adequate training is included.

Author

• Jennifer E. Lineback, Point Loma Nazarene University