Towards a model for primary students’ behavioral intention to learn AI: programming ability, AI literacy and ethics as three fundamental pillars

Artificial intelligence (AI) education plays an important role in providing primary students with relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes to adapt to the opportunities and challenges that the AI-power future poses. Previous studies have initially dedicated to establishing the predictors of primary students’ behavioral intention, which is essential to students’ AI learning. However, the current understanding of effective factors and potential underlying mechanisms is far from complete. This study aims to further explore the role of programming ability and AI ethics, combined with AI literacy on behavioral intention. A sample of 439 primary school students (220 girls; mean age = 12.69) completed an online questionnaire in a computer class at school. The results showed that: (1) AI literacy and AI ethics indirectly related to behavioral intention through different mechanisms; (2) programming ability not only significantly directly but also indirectly related to behavioral intention through the mediation of self-efficacy or the sequential mediation of social good and readiness. The findings enrich the knowledge of existing models to explain students’ behavioral intention for AI learning. The detailed implications of the study were also discussed.