Date
Publisher
arXiv
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into education, understanding how students perceive its risks is essential for supporting responsible and effective adoption. This research aimed to examine the relationships between perceived AI competence and risks among Finnish K-12 upper secondary students (n = 163) by utilizing a co-occurrence analysis. Students reported their self-perceived AI competence and concerns related to AI across systemic, institutional, and personal domains. The findings showed that students with lower competence emphasized personal and learning-related risks, such as reduced creativity, lack of critical thinking, and misuse, whereas higher-competence students focused more on systemic and institutional risks, including bias, inaccuracy, and cheating. These differences suggest that students' self-reported AI competence is related to how they evaluate both the risks and opportunities associated with artificial intelligence in education (AIED). The results of this study highlight the need for educational institutions to incorporate AI literacy into their curricula, provide teacher guidance, and inform policy development to ensure personalized opportunities for utilization and equitable integration of AI into K-12 education.
Study at a glance
- Question: How do upper secondary students perceive AI risks, and does their perceived AI competence shape these risk perceptions?
- Setting and data: One Finnish general upper secondary school, 163 students.
- Method: Survey with co-occurrence network analysis and regression-adjusted edge weights.
Why it matters
Understanding how students perceive AI-related risks is essential for supporting responsible adoption in education, yet research rarely examines how individual characteristics like AI competence shape students' risk perceptions.
Key findings
- Finnish upper secondary students were most concerned about AI being inaccurate and biased, AI-assisted cheating, reduced learning, and decreased critical thinking and creativity.
- Students with lower perceived AI competence reported more concerns overall, focusing strongly on personal learning risks, reduced creativity, and fear of misuse or addiction.
- Higher-competence students reported fewer concerns overall and instead emphasized systemic and institutional risks, closely linking concerns about AI cheating, bias, inaccuracies, and school rules.
Summary drafted with AI from the full paper and may contain errors. See the full paper for details.
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