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The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between pre-service early childhood teachers' perceived need for early childhood science education and their knowledge of artificial intelligence, attitudes toward science instruction, and self-efficacy in science teaching. The subjects of this study were 224 pre-service early childhood teachers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang provinces, and their data were analyzed for the research. The relationships among research variables were analyzed using Pearson's correlation analysis, and the structural relationships were explored through structural equation modeling (SEM) using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 23.0. These results were as followed. First, when examining the tendencies of research variables, all scored above 3.0 points, indicating a high level, and normality was considered satisfactory in the analysis. Second, statistically significant positive correlations were observed among all variables, with a particular focus on endogenous variables such as science teaching self-efficacy and its sub-factors, as well as attitudes toward science instruction and its sub-factors. Third, the measurement model was found to be appropriate. Examining the path coefficients of the structural model revealed that the perceived need for early childhood science education had statistically significant effects on artificial intelligence knowledge, attitudes toward science instruction, and science teaching self-efficacy. Statistically significant effects of artificial intelligence knowledge were found on attitudes toward science instruction and science teaching self-efficacy. Mediation analysis revealed that knowledge of artificial intelligence partially mediated the influence of perceived need for early childhood science education on attitudes toward science instruction and science teaching self-efficacy. These research findings suggest the need to consider incorporating educational approaches related to artificial intelligence to enhance the foundation of early childhood science education.
Hye-Young Jo (Sat,) studied this question.