idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Preparing teacher education students for the use of AI in geography lessons – that is the focus of the new “TEACH-AI (Teacher Education for AI and Climate Harmony)” project. It brings together researchers from the University of Bremen and the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine).
“On the one hand, AI has great potential in geography lessons,” explains Dr. Neli Heidari, lecturer of geography didactics, who is supervising the TEACH-AI project at the University of Bremen. “For example, learners could be encouraged to think about the ecological impact of using AI: services such as ChatGPT require large amounts of electricity and water.” On the other hand, there is the question: How can AI be used in such a way that young people really learn with it (upskilling) instead of simply passing the task on to AI (deskilling)? And how can they learn to critically question AI-generated content?
The TEACH-AI project seeks to answer these questions. It will run for eleven months starting in November 2025 and is funded by the Foundation on German-American Academic Relations. Participants include Dr. Neli Heidari, lecturer of geography didactics at the University of Bremen, Ary Karumanthara, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher at UC Irvine, and Dr. Asli-Sezen-Barrie, professor of climate and environmental education at UC Irvine. The researchers are conducting the project with 20 teacher education students from both universities who are studying geography and environmental education for high schools.
Project Combines Strengths of Both Countries
The researchers are first analyzing how AI is currently being integrated into teacher education. They are also asking the prospective teachers what potential and challenges they associate with the use of AI in the classroom and what resources they need. The team will then develop digital teaching and learning modules to strengthen the AI literacy of teacher training students in specific subjects. These will be evaluated by students and integrated into teacher training in the long term.
“The project combines the strengths and potential of both countries in terms of the role of AI from a didactic perspective,” explains Neli Heidari. “In the US, AI education already has a high priority in the higher education system. At the same time, aspects such as education for sustainable development and climate change education are given greater priority in Germany. This transatlantic networking is particularly valuable in this respect, as our project allows both sides to benefit from each other.”
Dr. Neli Heidari
Didactics of Geography
Institute of Geography
University of Bremen
Email: nheidari@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-67111
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Journalists, Scientists and scholars, Students, Teachers and pupils, all interested persons
Geosciences, Teaching / education
regional
Research projects
English
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