Engaging Teachers to Co-Design Integrated AI Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms

TL;DR

This paper explores co-design workshops with K-12 teachers to develop integrated AI curricula, highlighting the need for scaffolding, engagement supports, and collaboration to make AI education accessible across subjects.

Contribution

It presents a novel co-design approach involving teachers to embed AI concepts into core subjects and provides an exemplar lesson plan for non-computing classrooms.

Findings

Teachers need scaffolding for ethics and data discussions

Supports for engagement, collaboration, and reflection are valued

An exemplar lesson plan demonstrates entry points for AI in non-computing subjects

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) education is an increasingly popular topic area for K-12 teachers. However, little research has investigated how AI education can be designed to be more accessible to all learners. We organized co-design workshops with 15 K-12 teachers to identify opportunities to integrate AI education into core curriculum to leverage learners' interests. During the co-design workshops, teachers and researchers co-created lesson plans where AI concepts were embedded into various core subjects. We found that K-12 teachers need additional scaffolding in the curriculum to facilitate ethics and data discussions, and value supports for learner engagement, collaboration, and reflection. We identify opportunities for researchers and teachers to collaborate to make AI education more accessible, and present an exemplar lesson plan that shows entry points for teaching AI in non-computing subjects. We also reflect on co-designing with K-12 teachers in a remote setting.