Review article | Open Access
Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education 2025, Vol. 6(2) 91-102
pp. 91 - 102 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.29329/jirte.2025.1341.4
Publish Date: September 22, 2025 | Single/Total View: 0/0 | Single/Total Download: 0/0
Abstract
This study aims to examine ethical, pedagogical, and applied approaches to the use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technologies in preschool education within a theoretical framework. GAI offers significant advantages for teachers, including creative content production, effective time management, and individualized learning opportunities. In particular, tools such as ChatGPT, DALL·E, and Suno AI can be used to quickly and effectively develop story, song, poster, animation, and game-based activities for preschool children. However, the integration of these technologies into the classroom environment requires teachers to possess multidimensional competencies such as ethical sensitivity, pedagogical intuition, digital literacy, and content control. A literature review reveals that teachers exhibit both promising and cautious attitudes toward AI. Issues such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, cultural appropriateness, and digital inequality are at the center of teachers' ethical concerns. Furthermore, considering the developmental characteristics of preschool children, it is emphasized that AI-based content should be designed in a game-based, interactive, and age-appropriate manner. In this context, the study offers a guiding framework for teachers and policymakers, identifying the key principles that should be considered when integrating AI technologies into early childhood education.
Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Early Childhood Education, Technology Integration in Early Childhood, Teacher Competencies
APA 7th edition
Bursa, G.Y. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence and preschool education activities: ethical, pedagogical, and applied approaches. Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education, 6(2), 91-102. https://doi.org/10.29329/jirte.2025.1341.4
Harvard
Bursa, G. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence and preschool education activities: ethical, pedagogical, and applied approaches. Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education, 6(2), pp. 91-102.
Chicago 16th edition
Bursa, Gulhan Yilmaz (2025). "Generative artificial intelligence and preschool education activities: ethical, pedagogical, and applied approaches". Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education 6 (2):91-102. https://doi.org/10.29329/jirte.2025.1341.4
Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2022). Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2(3), 431-440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681.021.00096-7
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). Media and young minds. Pediatrics, 138(5), e20162591. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591
Borenstein, J., & Howard, A. (2021). Emerging challenges in AI and the need for AI ethics education. AI and Ethics, 1, 61-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681.020.00002-7
Bulathwela, S., Pérez-Ortiz, M., Holloway, C., Çukurova, M., & Shawe-Taylor, J. (2024). Artificial Intelligence alone will not democratise education: On educational inequality, techno-solutionism and inclusive tools. Sustainability, 16(2), 781. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020781
Çam, M. B., Çelik, N. C., Turan Güntepe, E., & Durukan, Ü. G. (2021). Öğretmen adaylarının yapay zekâ teknolojileri ile ilgili farkındalıklarının belirlenmesi [Determining teacher candidates' awareness of artificial intelligence technologies]. Hatay Mustafa Kemal Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 18 (48), 263-285.
Carrillo, M. R. (2020). Artificial intelligence: From ethics to law. Telecommunications policy, 44(6), 101937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2020.101937
Ch’ng, L. K. (2024). “Standing on the Shoulders of Generative AI”. R. Sharma & A. Bozkurt (Ed.), In Transforming Education With Generative AI: Prompt Engineering and Synthetic Content Creation (s. 1-21). IGI Global.
Chen, X., Xie, H., Zou, D., & Hwang, G. J. (2020). Application and theory gaps during the rise of artificial intelligence in education. Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence, 1, 100002.n https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2020.100002
Dodhia, R. (2024). AI for social good: Using artificial intelligence to save the world. John Wiley & Sons
Druga S., Vu S. T., Likhith E., & Qiu T. (2019). Inclusive AI literacy for kids around the world. Proceedings of FabLearn.104–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311890.3311904
Durrani, R., Iqbal, A., & Akram, H. (2024). Artificial intelligence (AI) in early childhood education, exploring challenges, opportunities and future directions: A scoping review. Qlantic Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 411-423. https://doi.org/10.55737/qjss.135537445
Horton, W., & Horton, K. (2003). E-Learning tools and technologies: A consumer’s guide for trainers, teachers, educators, and instructional designers. John Wiley & Sons.
Hutton, J. S., Piotrowski, J. T., Bagot, K., Blumberg, F., Canli, T., Chein, J., Christakis, D. A., Grafman, J., Griffin, J. A., Hummer, T., Kuss, D. J., Lerner, M., Marcovitch, S., Paulus, M. P., Perlman, G., Romeo, R., Thomason, M. E., Turel, O., Weinstein, A., West, G., … Potenza, M. N. (2024). Digital Media and Developing Brains: Concerns and Opportunities. Current addiction reports, 11(2), 287–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-024-00545-3
Hwang, G. J., & Tu, Y. F. (2021). Roles and Research Trends of Artificial Intelligence in Mathematics Education: A Bibliometric Mapping Analysis and Systematic Review. Mathematics, 9(6), 584. https://doi.org/10.3390/math9060584
Jin, L. (2019). Investigation on potential application of artificial intelligence in preschool children's education. The 5th annual international conference on network and information systems for computers (ICNISC2019), Wuhan, China. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1288/1/012072
Kalaba Yıldırım, Ö., & Önder, A. (2025). Okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin eğitimde yapay zekâ kullanımı hakkındaki görüşlerinin incelenmesi [An examination of preschool teachers' views on the use of artificial intelligence in education]. Kastamonu University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences– KİTOD 3(5), 133–166. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15488892
Kewalramani, S., Kidman, G., & Palaiologou, I. (2021). Using artificial intelligence (AI)-interfaced robotic toys in early childhood settings: A case for children’s inquiry literacy. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(5), 652-668. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2021.1968458
Kış, A. (2019, 2-4 May). Eğitimde yapay zekâ [Artificial intelligence in education]. 14. International Conference on Educational Management, İzmir.
Kölemen, M., & Yıldırım, E. (2025). A new era in early childhood education: ECE teachers’ opinions on the application of artificial intelligence. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13478-9
Krakowski, S. (2025). Human-AI agency in the age of generative AI. Information and Organization, 35(1), 100560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2025.100560
Küçükkara, M. F., Ünal, M., & Sezer, T. (2024). Okul Öncesi Eğitimi Öğretmenlerinin Yapay Zekâya İlişkin Görüşleri [Preschool Teachers' Views on Artificial Intelligence]. Journal of Research in Elementary Education, 4(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.55008/te-ad.1431142
Li, X., & Taber, K.S. (2022). The Future of Interaction: Augmented Reality, Holography and Artificial Intelligence in Early Childhood Science Education. In: Papadakis, S., Kalogiannakis, M. (eds) STEM, Robotics, Mobile Apps in Early Childhood and Primary Education. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore.
Lin, P., Van Brummelen, J., Lukin, G., Williams, R., & Breazeal, C. (2020, April). Zhorai: Designing a conversational agent for children to explore machine learning concepts. In Proceedings of the AAAI conference on artificial intelligence (Vol. 34, No. 09, pp. 13381-13388).
Mart, M., & Kaya, G. (2024). Okul öncesi öğretmen adaylarının yapay zekâya yönelik tutumları ve yapay zekâ okuryazarlığı arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi [Examining the relationship between preschool teacher candidates' attitudes toward artificial intelligence and their artificial intelligence literacy]. Edutech Research, 2(1), 91-109.
Nan, J. (2020, August). Research of application of artificial intelligence in preschool education. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1607, No. 1, p. 012119). IOP Publishing. 1607 (1), pp. 1-5.
Ng, D. T. K., Leung, J. K. L., Su, J., Ng, R. C. W., & Chu, S. K. W. (2023). Teachers’ AI digital competencies and twenty-first century skills in the post-pandemic world. Educational Technology Research and Development, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-023-10203-6
Nguyen, A., Ngo, H. N., Hong, Y., Dang, B., & Nguyen, B. P. T. (2023). Ethical principles for artificial intelligence in education. Education and Information Technologies, 28(4), 4221–4241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639.022.11316-w
OECD (2025), How's Life for Children in the Digital Age?, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0854b900-en
Ozturk, E. (2025). Artificial intelligence in early childhood STEM education: A review of pedagogical paradigms, ethical issues and socio-political implications. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 11(2), 108-125. https://doi.org/10.55549/jeseh.800
Pei, B., Lu, J., & Jing, X. (2025). Empowering preservice teachers’ AI literacy: Current understanding, influential factors, and strategies for improvement. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 8, 100406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2025.100406
Prentzas, J. (2013). Artificial intelligence methods in early childhood education. In Artificial intelligence, evolutionary computing and metaheuristics: In the footsteps of Alan Turing (pp. 169-199). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Radesky, J., Christakis, D., Hill, D., Ameenuddin, N., Chassiakos, Y., Cross, C., ... & Swanson, W. S. (2016). Media and young minds. Pediatrics, 138(5), e20162591. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591
Rivas, P. & Zhao, L. (2023). Marketing with chatgpt: Navigating the ethical terrain of gpt-based chatbot technology. AI, 4(2), 375-384. https://doi.org/10.3390/ai4020019
Robb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2025). Talk, trust, and trade-offs: How and why teens use AI companions. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media. Retrieved August 11, 2025, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/talk-trust-and-trade-offs-how-and-why-teens-use-ai-companions
Roll, I., & Wylie, R. (2016). Evolution and revolution in artificial intelligence in education. International journal of artificial intelligence in education, 26(2), 582-599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-016-0110-3
Su, J., & Yang, W. (2022). Artificial intelligence in early childhood education: A scoping review. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100049. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100049
Su J., & Yang W. (2023). Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy in early childhood education: An intervention study in Hong Kong. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2023.2217864
Su, J., & Zhong, Y. (2022). Artificial Intelligence (AI) in early childhood education: Curriculum design and future directions. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100072. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100072
Su, J., Ng, D. T. K., & Chu, S. K. W. (2023). Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy in early childhood education: The challenges and opportunities. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 4, 100124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100124
Turing, A.M. (2009). Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Epstein, R., Roberts, G., Beber, G. (ed), İçinde Parsing the Turing Test. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6710-5_3
UNICEF (2022). AI for children. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/featured-projects/ai-children.
UNICEF. (2025). Beyond algorithms: Three signals changing AI-child interaction. UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/stories/beyond-algorithms-three-signals-changing-ai-child-interaction
Uyak, S., Güngör Uyak, S., Ürey, D., Keskin, Ö., Aymaz, A., & Aydın, İ. (2023). Okul öncesi eğitim kurumlarında yapay zekâ uygulamaları: yönetici ve öğretmen görüşleri [Artificial intelligence applications in preschool education institutions: Administrator and teacher opinions]. International Social Mentality and Researcher Thinkers Journal, 9(75), 4625- 4636. http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/smryj.72414
VanLehn, K. (2011). The relative effectiveness of human tutoring, intelligent tutoring systems, and other tutoring systems. Educational Psychologist, 46(4), 197–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2011.611369
Vartiainen, H., Tedre, M., & Valtonen, T. (2020). Learning machine learning with very young children: Who is teaching whom? International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 25, 100182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2020.100182
Villegas-Ch., W., Jaramillo-Alcázar, A., & Mera-Navarrete, A. (2022). Assistance System for the Teaching of Natural Numbers to Preschool Children with the Use of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms. Future Internet, 14(9), 266. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14090266
Wei, W. J., Lee, L. C., & Kuo, J. Y. (2020, October). Development and validation of smart education system for early childhood. In 2020 IEEE eurasia conference on IOT, communication and engineering (ECICE) (pp. 48-51). IEEE.
Williams, R., Park, H. W., Oh, L., & Breazeal, C. (2019). Popbots: Designing an artificial intelligence curriculum for early childhood education. Proceedings of the AAAI conference on artificial intelligence, 33 (01), 9729-9736. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33019729
Xia, Q., Chiu, T. K., Lee, M., Sanusi, I. T., Dai, Y., & Chai, C. S. (2022). A self-determination theory (SDT) design approach for inclusive and diverse artificial intelligence (AI) education. Computers & Education, 189, 104582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104582
Yang, W. (2022). Artificial Intelligence education for young children: Why, what, and how in curriculum design and implementation. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100061
Yi, H., Liu, T., & Lan, G. (2024). The key artificial intelligence technologies in early childhood education: a review. Artificial Intelligence Review, 57(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-023-10637-7
Yim, I. H. Y., & Su, J. (2024). Artificial intelligence (AI) learning tools in K-12 education: A scoping review. Journal of Computers in Education, 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-023-00304-9