Students’ Use and Perception of Educational GenAI Chatbot in High School Computing: Insights from the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has gained mass popularity in education due to its versatility and convenience. It is particularly popular amongst younger students, who, as digital natives, are more receptive towards new technology. However, research on students’ attitudes and intentions towards using GenAI technology in their education mainly focuses on older age groups like university students. Utilizing the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB) as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study interviewed 18 high school computing students to explore their perceptions and intentions to use an educational GenAI chatbot to learn programming and how these decisions may be influenced by individual differences in their academic abilities. Using an abductive approach in analyzing the interview data, the findings align with DTPB to describe students’ attitudes towards using GenAI chatbots in their studies. It also proposes a new construct, students’ perceived need to use GenAI technology, that may influence students’ attitude and intentions. Lastly, the study uncovers differences between students of varying academic abilities in their priorities when using GenAI chatbots that influence their subsequent attitudes. This study extends the user perceptions captured in the existing DTPB framework and suggests how individual factors like academic ability may shape attitudes differently. It also provides recommendations for integrating GenAI into the high school classroom.