Professional Commitment to Excellence and Basic Human Values among Secondary School Teachers: Implications for Effective AI Integration in Education

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing teaching, learning, assessment and teacher professional development. The responsible integration of AI in education requires teachers to maintain professional standards, ethical responsibility and a commitment to human values. The present study examines two dimensions of teachers’ professional commitment: Commitment to Excellence and Commitment to Basic Human Values, and discusses their implications for effective AI integration in secondary education. The study adopts a descriptive survey approach using an existing Teacher Professional Commitment scale. The Excel worksheet supplied for analysis contains 30 completed respondent records. The two selected dimensions were analysed using descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation. The relationship between the two component scores was also examined using Pearson’s correlation. The preliminary analysis showed a mean score of 26.38 (SD = 2.30) for Commitment to Excellence and 29.08 (SD = 4.36) for Basic Human Values. The correlation between the two components was positive but not statistically significant (r = .276, p = .172). The findings are discussed in relation to human-centred and ethical AI integration. Since the original scale did not directly measure AI literacy, readiness or usage, the findings cannot establish teachers’ actual AI integration competencies. The study highlights the potential relevance of professional excellence and human values to responsible educational technology use and recommends further research using validated AI competency measures.