Generative or Degenerative?! Implications of AI Tools in Pre-Service Teacher Education and Reflections on Instructors’ Professional Development - A journal of educational research and practice 2024

Oct 15, 2026

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Despite existing research on AI applications in education (AIEd), the release of ChatGPT has disrupted educational practices and expectations. The technology can personalize learning, reduce teacher workload, and expand access to information, yet generative AI raises concerns about academic integrity, data accuracy, and bias. Highlighting varied educator awareness and conflicting views, two teacher educators facilitated three GenAI workshops across faculty groups using narrative inquiry, reflecting on preparation, facilitation, and future implications for teacher education research and practice.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

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Introduction

Research Objectives

Literature Review

Artificial Intelligence in Education: Affordances and Challenges

Generative or Degenerative?! Implications of AI Tools in Pre-Service Teacher Education and Reflections on Instructors’ Professional Development A journal of educational research and practice 2024 Vol. 33 (3) 75−98 [https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked](https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked) Mohammed Estaiteyeh* , Ruth McQuirter Faculty of Education, Brock University Abstract Despite existing research on AI applications in education (AIEd), the release of ChatGPT has disrupted the status quo in the educational landscape. Although this technology can personalize learning, decrease teacher workload, and offer access to a wealth of information, concerns around generative AI (GenAI) tools have emerged, including academic integrity, data accuracy, and bias in information. Given research highlights and acknowledging educators’varied levels of awareness and conflicting views toward AIEd, two teacher educators (also authors of this paper) in the Faculty of Education at Brock University facilitated three workshops among different groups of teacher educators. The workshops focused on the emerging nature of GenAI tools, their affordances, and their implications for educators’ practices. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, the authors describe the details of these workshops and present their reflections on the process of preparing for and facilitating them. Implications for teacher education research and practice are also presented and discussed. Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI) , artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) , teacher education, professional development, generative AI (GenAI) * [mestaiteyeh@brocku.ca](mestaiteyeh@brocku.ca) Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines or programs to solve problems ranging from medical diagnoses to loan application processing. More recently, chatbot technology has emerged in a sophisticated enough manner to facilitate humanlike conversations—a subfield known as generative AI (GenAI) . OpenAI’s ChatGPT (generative pretrained transformer) is among the most prominent of these chatbots (Zhu et al. , 2023) . With its explosion in userbase over the last couple of years, millions of people around the world turn to chatbots such as ChatGPT to answer questions and find information (Halaweh, 2023) . Although AI tools have been emerging in the last two decades, some researchers state that recently released GenAI technologies may change the landscape of education and have the potential to revolutionize how we teach and learn (Dawson, 2023; Volante et al. , 2023b) . However, despite its affordances, concerns around ChatGPT and other GenAI tools have emerged, including academic integrity, accuracy, and bias of information (Kumar, 2023; Trust et al. , 2023) . Accordingly, Kumar et al. (2023) and Zawacki-Richter et al. (2019) emphasize the need for critical reflections and discussions on the use of AI in education (AIEd) . Given these research highlights and acknowledging educators’ varied levels of awareness and conflicting views toward AIEd, two teacher educators (the authors of this paper) in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, Canada , facilitated workshops among different groups of faculty instructors. The workshops focused on the emerging nature of GenAI tools, their affordances, and their implications for educators’ practices. In this paper, the authors describe the details of these workshops, present their reflections, and discuss future implications. Research Objectives Following the initial release of ChatGPT in November 2022 (OpenAI, 2022), two professor s in the Faculty of Education at Brock University planned and facilitated three workshops addressing several audiences within their faculty. In this paper, the authors aim to document the process and the learned lessons emerging from these workshops. Additionally, the authors present their reflections on preparing for and facilitatin

FAQs

What benefits of generative AI tools are discussed for teacher education?

The paper notes that AI tools can personalize learning, decrease teacher workload, and provide access to a wealth of information.

What concerns about generative AI are emphasized?

It highlights academic integrity, data accuracy, and bias in information, along with risks such as overreliance on cognitive offloading and fabricated content.

How were the workshops designed and what research approach was used?

Two teacher educators facilitated three workshops for different groups, focusing on GenAI’s nature, affordances, and implications for educators’ practice, and used a narrative inquiry approach to describe and reflect on the process.

Oct 15, 2026

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