This study compares social stories prepared by pre-service teachers and AI-generated social stories, focusing on the story preparation process, the appropriateness of social stories, and pre-service teachers’ views on technology and artificial intelligence. Designed as a case study, the research involved 11 pre-service teachers enrolled in a special education teacher education program. Social stories were created by the participants and generated using AI tools (ChatGPT for text generation and DALL·E for visual production). Data were collected through AI-generated social stories, semi-structured interviews, expert evaluations using the Social Story Evaluation Guide, and researcher diary entries. Social stories were evaluated across 12 criteria, including structural organization, language use, perspective, appropriateness of visuals, and alignment with social story principles. The findings indicated that social stories prepared by pre-service teachers outperformed AI-generated stories on nine criteria, whereas AI-generated stories showed stronger performance on one criterion, with equivalent results observed on two criteria. The findings highlight the potential of AI as a supportive tool in social story development while emphasizing the continued importance of pedagogical judgment and systematic training in AI use. The study offers implications for teacher education programs and the informed integration of AI into special education practices.
Aksoy et al. (Tue,) studied this question.