The Benefits of Teaching History with AI Technology in First-Grade High School: A Focus on Egyptian Civilization

This pilot study explores how AI-supported activities may be integrated into secondary history instruction to support engagement and historical understanding. Twenty first-year high school students participated in a three-session, curriculum-aligned instructional sequence on ancient Egyptian civilization. Using a one-group pre–post mixed-methods design, the intervention combined ChatGPT-facilitated dialogic inquiry, Google Arts & Culture for visual exploration, and small-group discussion. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests, engagement surveys, and classroom observations. Students’ post-test scores were higher than their pretest scores, and students reported high engagement and perceived usefulness of the tools. Qualitative reflections suggested that the activities supported historical empathy, contextual reasoning, and motivation. Because the design did not include a control condition and combined multiple instructional components, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary and hypothesis-generating rather than causal evidence of an independent AI effect. The study extends classroom-based work on generative AI beyond STEM and language contexts by documenting an AI-integrated lesson design in history education. It provides feasibility evidence and design considerations that can inform future controlled studies examining when, how, and for whom AI support benefits learning in the humanities.