What is it about?
In recent years, artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT have entered everyday life and gradually found their way into schools. Many teachers recognize their potential, yet they often feel uncertain about how to use them in teaching. This study looks at whether short, well-designed training programs can help teachers feel more confident and capable when working with AI. By reviewing research from 2020 to 2025, we found that practical, hands-on training, especially workshops lasting from a few days up to two months, usually helps teachers strengthen their sense of competence. In most cases, participants reported feeling more prepared, more confident, and more willing to integrate AI into their lessons. The paper highlights the need for thoughtful, targeted professional development so that teachers can approach AI not with hesitation, but with clarity and pedagogical purpose.
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Why is it important?
What makes this study timely is the very recent surge of generative AI tools in education, especially after 2022. Although discussions about AI in schools have grown rapidly, there has been limited systematic evidence about how teacher training actually influences teachers’ confidence in using these tools. By focusing specifically on the five-year period marked by the emergence of ChatGPT and similar systems, this review captures a moment of transition in educational practice. The study is also distinctive because it does not simply describe attitudes toward AI. It examines concrete training interventions and maps their characteristics, duration, format, and measurable impact on self-efficacy. This provides a clearer picture of what kinds of professional development seem to work and under what conditions. For readers, this means moving beyond general enthusiasm or concern about AI and toward practical insight. The difference it can make lies in offering educators, researchers, and policymakers a structured overview that can guide real decisions about how to prepare teachers for a rapidly changing technological landscape.
Perspectives
Working on this review felt particularly meaningful to me because it sits at the intersection of technological change and everyday classroom reality. Much of the public conversation around AI in education swings between enthusiasm and alarm. What I found more important was to look closely at what actually helps teachers feel capable in practice. Reading the studies in detail made clear that confidence does not emerge from abstract discussion, but from structured experience, guidance, and space to experiment. I also see this publication as part of a broader effort to treat teachers not as passive recipients of innovation, but as professionals who need time, support, and thoughtful preparation to integrate new tools responsibly. If this paper encourages more careful planning of professional development and a more grounded discussion about AI in education, then it has served its purpose.
Adj. Prof. Konstantinos Mastrothanasis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Training interventions for teachers' self-efficacy enhancement in the use of Artificial Intelligence: A systematic literature review in the five-year period 2020-2025, Παιδαγωγικά ρεύματα στο Αιγαίο, December 2025, National Documentation Centre,
DOI: 10.12681/revmata.43576.
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