Influence of Pedagogical Beliefs and Perceived Trust on Teachers’ Acceptance of Educational Artificial Intelligence Tools

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have stimulated the development of educational AI tools (EAIT). EAITs intelligently assist teachers in formulating better pedagogical decisions or actions for their students. However, teachers are hardly integrating EAITs, and little is known about their perceptions of EAITs. This study seeks to identify human factors that encourage or restrict teachers’ acceptance of EAITs. We propose a revised technology acceptance model incorporating teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and perceived trust in EAITs. Survey data were collected from 215 teachers in South Korea and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that teachers with constructivist beliefs are more likely to integrate EAITs than teachers with transmissive orientations. Furthermore, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived trust in EAITs are determinants to be considered when explaining teachers’ acceptance of EAITs. Among them, the most influential determinant of predicting their acceptance was found to be how easily the EAIT is constructed. Significant implications for researchers and stakeholders regarding the development and integration of EAITs are discussed.