What Students Can Learn About Artificial Intelligence -- Recommendations for K-12 Computing Education

TL;DR

This paper proposes a curriculum of learning objectives for K-12 AI education, emphasizing digital literacy and societal impacts, to guide curriculum design and analysis amidst rapid AI developments.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive set of learning objectives for AI in K-12 education, addressing gaps in understanding core concepts and societal implications.

Findings

Provides a curriculum framework for AI literacy in K-12

Enables analysis of existing curricula and materials

Highlights key concepts and competencies in AI education

Abstract

Technological advances in the context of digital transformation are the basis for rapid developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Although AI is not a new topic in computer science (CS), recent developments are having an immense impact on everyday life and society. In consequence, everyone needs competencies to be able to adequately and competently analyze, discuss and help shape the impact, opportunities, and limits of artificial intelligence on their personal lives and our society. As a result, an increasing number of CS curricula are being extended to include the topic of AI. However, in order to integrate AI into existing CS curricula, what students can and should learn in the context of AI needs to be clarified. This has proven to be particularly difficult, considering that so far CS education research on central concepts and principles of AI lacks sufficient elaboration. Therefore, in this paper, we present a curriculum of learning objectives that addresses digital literacy and the societal perspective in particular. The learning objectives can be used to comprehensively design curricula, but also allow for analyzing current curricula and teaching materials and provide insights into the central concepts and corresponding competencies of AI.