From information providers to learning designers: heutagogical teaching practices in AI-enhanced education

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified longstanding questions about teachers' roles and the pedagogical conditions under which technology supports learner autonomy. This qualitatively driven embedded mixed-methods study examined practices reported and represented by Israeli teachers during an eight-week professional development program on AI, self-regulated learning, and learner-centered pedagogy. The primary qualitative strand drew on reflections, open-ended questionnaire responses, lesson plans, and pedagogical artifacts and used a hybrid deductive-inductive analysis. An exploratory quantitative strand compared 61 consenting pre-program submissions with 26 consenting post-program submissions. Because submissions were anonymous and unlinked, Welch independent-samples tests were used. Post-program means were descriptively higher for reflective teaching, AI-supported planning, and inquiry-oriented design, and essentially unchanged for differentiated instruction; none of the four comparisons was statistically significant after Holm adjustment. Qualitative analysis generated five interconnected dimensions: designing for learner agency, self-regulated teaching and reflection, AI-supported learning design, designing for capability development, and critical AI literacy. The findings support a dual-layer interpretation in which teachers' reflective regulation and critical judgment mediate the design of opportunities intended to support learner agency and capability. Because the study measured teachers' reports and artifacts rather than students' experiences or outcomes, its contribution concerns pedagogical intentions and professional learning, not demonstrated gains in learner agency.