HOW DO INFORMATICS TEACHERS PERCEIVE THE CHANGING PURPOSES AND PRACTICES OF INFORMATICS EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF GENERATIVE AI?

Abstract

AbstractGenAI is increasingly capable of performing activities central to Informatics learning, includinggenerating, explaining, modifying, and debugging code, raising questions about what studentsneed to learn and how teachers' roles may change. This study explored Informatics teachers'perceptions of the changing purposes and practices of Informatics education in the GenAI era.An exploratory qualitative design was employed with 12 Informatics teachers from a collegespecializing in Informatics education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviewsand analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three interconnected themes were identified.First, teachers perceived a shift in emphasis from producing correct computational outputstoward understanding, explaining, evaluating, and modifying both independently produced andAI-generated solutions, while continuing to regard foundational programming knowledge asessential. Second, teachers described their roles as increasingly involving the evaluation,contextualization, and mediation of AI-supported learning rather than primarily providinginformation and solutions. Third, participants negotiated a contextual boundary between AI asassistance and AI as substitution, particularly when evaluating whether successful taskperformance represented genuine student competence. The findings suggest that GenAI does notsimply introduce a new instructional tool but challenges established assumptions aboutcomputational competence, pedagogical expertise, and evidence of learning. Informaticseducation may therefore need to balance independent computational competence with criticaljudgement and purposeful human-AI collaboration.