Şakire Erbay Çetinkaya, Sevcan Bayraktar Çepni
The current intrinsic case study explored how a cohort of 64 university students utilize ChatGPT, particularly for their departmental exam preparation in an English-medium initial teacher education context. The data were gathered through a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire and analyzed via thematic content analysis. The results indicated that ChatGPT is primarily used to simplify and summarize course materials, clarify complex concepts, and generate practice exam questions, alongside supporting note organization and language accuracy in written responses. In addition to content support, ChatGPT is frequently considered a linguistic mediator that reduces the cognitive load of studying academic material in a second language. On the other hand, the participants raised their concerns about accuracy/hallucinations, misalignment with instructors’ expectations, overreliance, and academic laziness. Drawing on the first-hand reported benefits and constraints, the study concludes with pedagogical implications for the informed integration of GenAI in teacher training.