From Unseen Needs to Classroom Solutions: Exploring AI Literacy Challenges and Opportunities with a Project-Based Learning Toolkit in K-12 Education

University research collaboration (AI literacy toolkit study)

North America and East Asia (cross-region teacher participants)

Researchers conducting interviews and co-design with K-12 teachers

• In-school (K-12)
• Private program

Teacher-centered co-design and interview-based formative evaluation

One-hour session per teacher (5-minute demo, exploration, ~50-minute interview)

13 middle and high school teachers across 9 subjects

PBL toolkit prototypes: AI Chatbot, AI Art Lab, AI Music Studio

• Teachers reported limited time and resources to deploy AI-rich activities at scale.
• Large variation in student AI proficiency and teacher technical comfort.
• Hardware and access constraints (devices, labs, connectivity) remain practical barriers.

Middle and high school learners (as represented in teacher-designed plans)

Mixed; often uneven access and prior use depending on school context

Mixed; many activities designed for low technical entry

• Assess K-12 teachers’ current AI literacy readiness for classroom integration.
• Understand how teachers design subject-integrated AI activities with a PBL toolkit.
• Identify contextual factors affecting adoption, learning outcomes, and curriculum fit.

• Support creativity, critical thinking, and learner autonomy through AI tools.
• Enable teachers without deep AI background to launch practical AI literacy lessons.
• Surface tool-design priorities for scalability across diverse schools.

• Not a large-scale randomized classroom intervention.
• Not a final production deployment across all schools.
• Not a full direct measure of student long-term achievement.

Project-based AI toolkit with multi-modal creation and conversation tools

English and Mandarin interview contexts

• Tutor
• Co-creator
• Evaluator

• AI Chatbot for guided inquiry, tutoring support, and prompt refinement.
• AI Art Lab for image-generation workflows tied to classroom project rubrics.
• AI Music Studio for rubric-driven song generation and concept reinforcement.
• Teacher customization of topics, scopes, and assessment criteria.

• Teachers emphasized need for verification due to AI hallucination and accuracy concerns.
• Ethics/legal concerns included trustworthiness and copyright compliance.
• Additional onboarding and scaffolding were requested for safer classroom use.

• Teacher watches toolkit demo and explores prototype tools.
• Interview probes AI literacy, prior teaching practice, and design preferences.
• Teacher drafts activity plans integrating AI tools into subject lessons.
• Researchers code themes on feasibility, barriers, and design recommendations.

• Teachers design pedagogical goals, rubrics, and classroom orchestration.
• AI provides generative outputs, feedback prompts, and conversational support.
• Teachers and students critically evaluate AI outputs for correctness and appropriateness.

• Project-based learning structure with authentic cross-disciplinary tasks.
• Prompt evaluation guidance to improve question quality and metacognitive skills.
• Adaptable modules for varied learner levels and classroom contexts.

• Limited teaching resources and class-time constraints for AI integration.
• Student AI ability gaps create pacing and support challenges.
• Teacher AI literacy gaps and onboarding needs affect implementation confidence.
• Concerns about output quality, legal compliance, and over-reliance on AI tools.

• Teachers designed subject-specific activities using toolkit customization features.
• Rubric integration and prompt guidance were valued for clearer student expectations.
• Tools were used to support both foundational learners and advanced students.
• AI chatbot functions were adapted as after-class tutoring support in resource-limited contexts.

• Teachers reported strong potential for learner engagement via creative AI activities.
• Chatbot use was seen as supportive for self-directed practice and confidence building.

• Lesson plans commonly targeted creation, understanding, and personalized support.
• Teachers linked toolkit use to problem-solving, critical thinking, and metacognitive growth.
• Positive attitudes toward AI in learning coexisted with demands for better guardrails and guidance.

Toolkit flexibility is promising, but scalable adoption requires stronger teacher support, clearer onboarding, and robust trust-and-safety design.

• Teachers raised trust and reliability concerns about AI-generated content in learning tasks.
• Copyright and legal-compliance questions were repeatedly identified as classroom risks.
• Responsible use requires critical evaluation workflows rather than blind acceptance of outputs.

• Practitioner observation
• Activity documentation

• Provides implementation insights for PBL-based AI literacy beyond computer science classes.
• Offers design evidence for adaptable toolkits in heterogeneous school contexts.
• Highlights equity, teacher-readiness, and infrastructure factors shaping real-world adoption.

• K-12 AI literacy curriculum design
• Teacher co-design and professional learning
• Project-based AI pedagogy
• Human-AI interaction and classroom tool adoption

• Completed

Middle and high school

Cross-disciplinary K-12 classrooms

Conversational tutoring, media generation, and prompt evaluation

Project-based learning with teacher customization and co-design

Medium

Medium (student-generated content and classroom AI interactions)