AI anxiety and awareness of German teacher candidates

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the anxiety levels of prospective German teacher candidates in the face of rapid developments in artificial intelligence applications. Participants ( n = 136) from the Department of German Language Teaching were included in the study. The 16-item Artificial Intelligence Anxiety Scale (AIAS) developed by Wang and Wang (2019) and validated by Akkaya et al. (2021) was used to measure AI anxiety. The findings indicate that the overall anxiety levels are 46,90 and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is 0.927. There are significant differences in AI anxiety levels among German teacher candidates based on socio-demographic variables such as gender and future career choices, on the other hand there is no difference in class variables. Significant differences were found both in total AI anxiety scores and in the sub-dimensions of ‘Learning’ and ‘AI Configuration’ based on career choices. In the gender variable, differences were also observed in the sub-dimensions of ‘Job Replacement’ and ‘AI Configuration’. Furthermore, results from a 7-item survey administered to assess teacher candidates’ perspectives on AI in the context of foreign language learning revealed a need for increased awareness regarding AI among teacher candidates. AI anxiety may limit teacher candidates’ personal and professional development. In this sense, education programs should be updated to adapt teacher candidates to this technology and they should be made aware of this issue through in-service trainings. Especially, theoretical models such as ‘Technological Acceptance Model’ (TAM) could provide a useful framework for understanding teacher candidates’ acceptance of AI technologies.