Mobile Professional Development for STEM Teachers Using AI

This qualitative interpretive study examined how an AI-assisted mobile application supported a differentiated professional development opportunity (DPDO) for 30 STEM teachers across six Arab countries over 24 weeks. Grounded in andragogy and interpreted through a TPACK lens, the study explored teachers’ perceived benefits of using the SchooTeach mobile app for AI-aware professional learning. Post-program focus group interviews were thematically analyzed, yielding four interrelated areas: the differentiated professional development program, the mobile application, AI in STEM education, and the virtual community of practice. Across these areas, teachers reported that the DPDO fostered agency through choice and ownership, collaborative learning ecologies, holistic professional identity, and metacognitive reflection, alongside tensions related to feeling overwhelmed and the need for clearer guidance. The app’s intuitive interface, multimodal resources, and AI-supported recommendation engine enabled personalized, continuous learning, yet limited social interaction features constrained deeper collaboration. AI was described as expanding teachers’ repertoire of STEM pedagogies and enhancing confidence, while raising concerns about data privacy, bias, and equity. Overall, the findings suggest that AI-aware, mobile-mediated professional development can strengthen teachers’ AI-related technological knowledge and emerging TPK/TPACK without displacing human judgment, provided that designs scaffold choice, embed collaboration, and address ethical considerations.