Investigating Changes in Teachers’ Perceptions about Artificial Intelligence after Virtual Professional Development

Artificial intelligence is impacting society on a very large scale and should be included in K-12 educational content in some capacity to provide meaningful STEM experiences. Computer vision (a field of research that heavily leverages artificial intelligence) was emphasized in professional development for in-service teachers. The teachers received two to three weeks of training across two states (Arizona and Georgia) that emphasized image processing, computer vision, and machine learning using visual media. Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955) was used to map changes in thinking using hierarchical cluster analysis. The research question was: How did in-service teachers’ thinking regarding artificial intelligence change after partaking in remote professional development emphasizing computer vision? Dendrograms and descriptive statistics showed changes in thinking for in-service teachers in relation to artificial intelligence. There were four clusters in both the pre-and post-professional development dendrograms, but constructs shifted within clusters. Implications for practice and research are discussed.