Exploring the Benefits and Limitations of AI Summarization Tools in Teacher Education

ABSTRACT: Reading response journals used in combination with GenAI summary apps can help students better understand their own thinking about and approaches to using AI for classroom learning and teaching. The purpose of this research is to raise awareness of AI summarization tools for academic content as well as gain insight into teacher-trainee perspectives on the process, of which there is a notable gap in the research. Graduate school teacher-trainees wrote and compared an individual summary to an AI-generated summary on the same article. Qualitative data was collected in the form of reading response journals and a small set of reflection questions about the AI app used. Results showed that while students appreciated the efficiency and ease of use of AI summary apps, such apps can produce overly-broad and less detailed information. While AI summary apps are a practical tool that can aid students‘ learning needs, the use of reading journals or reflective journals on AI tools can help students better discriminate about the role of AI in their future learning.

KEYWORDS: AI summary applications, response journals, teacher trainees, perceptions