The Effect of Teaching Artificial Intelligence Ethics Concepts on Social Responsibility and Digital Citizenship of First-Grade Secondary School Students in District 2 of Hamadan

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching artificial intelligence ethics concepts on social responsibility and digital citizenship of first-grade secondary school students in District 2 of Hamadan. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all female first-grade secondary school students in District 2 of Hamadan in the 2024-2025 academic year, among whom 50 individuals were selected using convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups: experimental (25 people) and control (25 people). Data collection tools included Phillips' (1980) Social Responsibility Questionnaire and Choi et al.'s (2016) Digital Citizenship Questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed in the present study. The experimental group received training on AI ethics concepts over 8 sessions, while the control group received no training. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The findings showed that teaching AI ethics concepts has a positive and significant effect on increasing students' social responsibility and digital citizenship. Therefore, it can be concluded that integrating ethical training within the context of artificial intelligence can be effective in educating responsible and aware citizens in the digital age.