CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON TRIALLING AN AI APPLICATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION ASSESSMENT IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE

Since as early as the 1990s, the implications of AI on the traditional role of the teacher were foreseen (Garito, 1991).It has since been argued that effective facilitation of pupil learning in the technological age necessitates the exploration of innovative approaches in equipping pre-service teachers to this end (Tungera and Chigona, 2023).Thus, the researcher embarked on a pilot project to investigate student teachers' directed use of generative AI as part of a module assessment.The module in question focuses on academic reading writing and referencing, and thus behoves critical engagement with, and reflection on, AI tools as part of professional practice.Reflections are offered on the incorporation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software application in an Irish undergraduate Teacher Education programme from 2023-2025.As part of this research project, 85 Bachelor of Education students evaluated an AI application as a research tool for an academic essay submitted for assessment purposes in their first year of the programme.Students were subsequently invited to offer feedback on their experience of using AI for their review of literature.The same cohort were then invited as part of a mixed methods study to complete a follow-up survey, one academic year later, with the purpose of enabling reporting on the extent to which the initial experience of such AI application for assessment has informed further use thereof in the interim.A focus group was then convened using snowball sampling.To this end, further to an account of the AI implementation process and the associated research component, analysis of personal and professional learning are shared including student teachers' identification of the value of GenAI as an assistant, while demonstrating a sense of wariness of it, and concerns relating to reliability and environmental impacts.The findings are refracted against the OECD contention that the application of GenAI can be drawn upon 'to enhance and transform teaching and learning in the classroom', with teachers 'supported but not supplanted by AI' (Pons, 2023:7).