Artificial intelligence integration shapes motivation engagement and instructional design outcomes among secondary school students in Morocco

Abstract This study examines how the spontaneous, largely unmediated adoption of AI tools in secondary school learning practices shapes student motivation and engagement in Morocco, and what these outcomes imply for the pedagogical design of AI-integrated instruction. Conducted within a post-positivist, mixed-methods paradigm, the study draws on a structured survey administered to 100 secondary school students (Years 10–12, science and humanities streams) during the 2024–2025 academic year. Data were collected via Google Forms and analyzed through descriptive statistics, non-parametric inferential tests, and thematic content analysis of open-ended responses. Results indicate that 97.0% of students report familiarity with AI, and 89.0% use ChatGPT as their primary learning tool. The motivational impact is notably positive: 47.0% of students report increased motivation, while 21.0% report a decline associated with dependency behaviors and reduced autonomous cognitive effort. Regarding engagement, 83.0% of participants report stronger classroom involvement after AI-assisted preparation, though a risk of technological dependency was identified in 15.0% of respondents. These findings suggest that students in this sample perceived AI primarily as a lever for extrinsic motivation and behavioral engagement, with stronger outcomes associated with scaffolding-oriented rather than substitutive use. Critically, the scaffolding/substitution distinction emerges as the key mediating variable: students who use ChatGPT to support reasoning also reported stronger motivational outcomes than those who reported using it to bypass cognitive effort. The study derives six preliminary pedagogical implications for AI-integrated instruction, with direct relevance to resource-constrained educational systems where general-purpose AI tools represent the dominant mode of AI integration.