Teachers’ AI Competence and Student Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence: Cognitive and Affective Perspectives

Abstract

In the modern period of advanced technology, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into school education is an indispensable need of the hour, and, in this context, it is essential to assess the perceptions and readiness of teachers and students. This quantitative study explores teachers’ AI competence and students' attitudes toward AI in secondary schools in Quetta. Through stratified random sampling, 368 teachers and 394 students were selected to examine the effect of teachers' perceptions of AI on students’ cognitive attitudes toward AI in education and to determine whether teachers’ AI knowledge and skills predict students’ affective attitudes toward AI. Results indicate that when individual effects are considered, teachers' perceptions are a highly significant and positive predictor of students' academic attitudes, and as the quality of teachers' perceptions increases from the lower to the upper percentiles, students' academic scores increase in a perfectly linear pattern. Results further show that the teachers' AI knowledge and skills and students' affective behaviors are closely related; consequently, teachers' AI knowledge and skills are a very powerful and positive predictor of students' expressive behaviors. The study reveals a “Moderate but Uncertain” atmosphere regarding AI in Quetta's educational environment. An important aspect of the research is that, despite positive perceptions of AI, there was a lack of practical skills, indicating a clear gap between “knowing” and “doing”. The study concludes that overall, students' attitudes towards AI were encouraging, with the academic sector being the most positive, indicating that the new generation has accepted AI as a future need.