Designing inclusive mathematics story-problems using artificial intelligence: a study involving prospective support teachers

The latest frontier in Intelligent Adaptive Learning Systems (IALS) is conversational intelligent systems, more commonly known as chatbots; among them, the most popular is ChatGPT, which we used in this research to support designing inclusive mathematics story-problems. Research was conducted with 175 prospective secondary school special education teachers who attend the “Special Education Laboratory: codes of logical and mathematical language” as part of the Specialization Course for Special Education Teachers at the University of Molise. The research questions are: (i) How is the support offered by ChatGPT perceived by the prospective special education teachers? (ii) Can the use ChatGPT has a positive impact on the design of inclusive teaching activities in mathematics? (iii) What are the pitfalls of using ChatGPT as a support in designing learning activities in mathematics by prospective special education teachers? Participants worked in small groups and were asked to design inclusive mathematics story-problems. It was important to carry out this task first without using ChatGPT and then by using it. At the end of the course, participants were asked to answer a semi-structured self-directed questionnaire using CAWI methodology. Preliminary analysis seems to show that ChatGPT was perceived by participants as a useful tool that can free up energy to be allocated to higher levels of creative production by speeding up the time. In addition, it was necessary to carry out checks by participants on the correctness of what ChatGPT proposed from a mathematical point of view.