A Case Study on an AI Ethics Program for Pre-service Ethics Teachers

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are advancing rapidly. However, the pace of ethical and legal consensus building has lagged behind these technological developments. Simultaneously, there is a growing societal demand for AI ethics education. This study aims to design and implement an AI ethics education program for prospective ethics teachers and evaluate its effectiveness. The study was conducted during the second semester of 2024, targeting 12 prospective ethics teachers enrolled at a teacher training institution in the Chungbuk region of South Korea. The program addressed key topics such as understanding AI concepts, exploring the ontology of AI, recognizing the necessity of AI ethics, and applying AI ethics in education. To assess the program's effectiveness, pre- and post-tests were conducted, and the data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The analysis revealed no significant changes in the participants' AI ethical awareness. However, their competence in integrating AI into education showed statistically significant improvement. These findings suggest that AI ethics education can contribute to enhancing the practical educational competencies of prospective teachers.