Teachers' Prompts and Perception of GAI in Interdisciplinary Teaching Design within Knowledge-Building Environment

• Published in: Jiao yu yu xin li yan jiu Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 1 - 30
• Main Authors: Tseng, Li-Ting, Chen, Mei-Ju, Weng, Hsuan-Jui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taipei National Chengchi University, Editorial Board of Journal of Education & Psychology 01.12.2024
• Subjects: Collaboration; Education; Environment; Interdisciplinary Approach; Perceptions; Prompting; Teacher education; Teachers; Teaching methods
• ISSN: 1024-9885
• DOI: 10.53106/102498852024124704001

Traditional teacher education focuses on single subjects, limits interdisciplinary knowledge, hinders communication and collaboration, and reduces confidence in interdisciplinary teaching design. Generative AI (GAI)'s vast databases can compensate for teachers' limited interdisciplinary knowledge, but the quality of its output relies on effective prompting (or questioning, hereafter referred to as prompting). The collaboration between teachers and GAI in interdisciplinary teaching design makes effective prompting essential, highlighting the need for a Knowledge-Building environment that fosters collaboration and idea development. This study focuses on 18 in-service teachers and explores how they engage in interdisciplinary teaching design within a Knowledge-Building environment integrated with GAI. A mixed-method approach was used to analyze their prompting progress and perceptions of GAI. The study found that: (1) Teachers' prompting behavior with GAI primarily focused on extracting and inferring information, with frequent transitions between these two levels. Subsequent shifts often move towards higher-level interpretation and integration, as well as comparative and evaluation, though there is still room for improvement. (2) Further analysis showed that teachers consciously used the information provided by GAI for deeper inference within the community and combined it with their own experiences and other resources for comprehensive analysis. (3) In the Knowledge-Building environment integrated with GAI, teachers' perceptions of GAI improved. Through community discourse and feedback, teachers revalidated GAI-generated information, which helped them maintain critical thinking. This shows that the use of GAI complements community collaboration. Finally, suggestions for teacher professional development in the context of technological innovation are proposed.