Chatbot-Integrated Pedagogy for Enhancing Lesson Planning Skills among Pre-Service Teachers

The present study examined the effectiveness of chatbot-integrated pedagogy for enhancing lesson planning skills among pre-service teachers. Lesson planning is a core professional competency in teacher education because it helps teachers organize objectives, content, teaching strategies, classroom activities, teaching-learning materials, assessment, and reflection. With the growing use of artificial intelligence in education, chatbots can provide instant guidance, feedback, examples, prompts, and reflective support for lesson planning. The study adopted a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test control group design. The sample consisted of 80 pre-service teachers, with 40 in the experimental group and 40 in the control group. The experimental group was exposed to a chatbot-integrated pedagogy module for four weeks, while the control group received conventional guidance. Data were collected using a Lesson Planning Skill Rubric consisting of 10 dimensions and 50 marks. The collected data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test, ANCOVA, and Cohen’s d. The pre-test result showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups, t(78) = 0.48, p = .632, indicating group equivalence. The post-test result showed a significant difference in favour of the experimental group, t(78) = 9.97, p < .001. The paired t-test showed significant improvement in the experimental group from pre-test to post-test, t(39) = 15.29, p < .001. ANCOVA also confirmed a significant effect of chatbot-integrated pedagogy on lesson planning skills after controlling for pre-test scores, F(1, 77) = 102.50, p < .001, partial η² = .57. The findings indicate that chatbot-integrated pedagogy is effective in improving lesson planning skills among pre-service teachers. The study suggests that AI chatbots may be used as supportive pedagogical tools in teacher education when guided by ethical, reflective, and teacher-mediated practices.