Special Education Pre‐Service Teachers' Conscientiousness and Their Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence: The Mediating Role of <scp>AI</scp> Literacy and <scp>AI</scp> Anxiety

ABSTRACT Complex interactions between personality traits, technology literacy, and anxiety levels influence pre‐service special education teachers' attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI). However, the mechanisms underlying these interactions have not been sufficiently investigated in the literature. This study examines the mediating roles of AI literacy and AI anxiety in the relationship between responsibility personality traits and attitudes towards AI through a sample of pre‐service special education teachers in Turkey. A sample of 255 pre‐service special education teachers ( M age = 22) responded anonymously to the five factor personality scale, attitude towards artificial intelligence scale, artificial intelligence anxiety scale and artificial intelligence literacy scale. The results of structural equation modelling revealed that AI literacy and AI anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between responsibility personality traits and attitude towards AI. The mediation relationship includes the single mediation of AI literacy and the multiple mediation paths in which AI literacy and AI anxiety are sequentially adequate. These findings point to the importance of increasing the AI literacy levels of special education teachers in order for them to integrate AI technologies into their teaching processes effectively. The study makes an original contribution to the literature by examining the interaction between AI literacy and anxiety in the context of special education.