Can artificial intelligence anxiety serve as a facilitator: the relationship between pre-service teachers’ AI anxiety, their motivated learning and AI self-efficacy

This study investigates the anxiety profiles of pre-service teachers regarding AI and the connection between these profiles and motivated learning as well as the importance of AI self-efficacy and gender for these profiles within the framework of the Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions. Data were collected from 435 pre-service teachers studying at a university in Türkiye. The results indicated three different AI risk-awareness anxiety profiles based on four aspects of AI anxiety: learning, AI configuration, job replacement, and sociotechnical blindness. In particular, the pre-service teachers in the high AI risk-awareness anxiety profile appeared to exhibit higher motivated learning behaviour. These results broaden our perspective on AI anxiety by revealing that AI anxiety is multidimensional and its various components should be distinguished from one another. The fact that anxiety has a facilitating effect in addition to its debilitating effect could be considered as an opportunity to increase the motivation of individuals. On the other hand, gender and AI self-efficacy appears to have no effect on the probability of pre-service teachers’ being categorised into AI risk-aware anxiety profiles. This outcome indicates that people’s risk perceptions of AI do not consistently align with their confidence in their AI skills, irrespective of gender.