Building AI Literacy with Experiential Learning—Insights from a Field Experiment in K-12 Education

Maximilian Förster (), Kirsten Pitz (), Andrea Wrabel (), Mathias Klier () and Steffen Zimmermann ()
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Maximilian Förster: Ulm University, Institute of Business Analytics
Kirsten Pitz: Ulm University, Institute of Business Analytics
Andrea Wrabel: Ulm University, Institute of Business Analytics
Mathias Klier: Ulm University, Institute of Business Analytics
Steffen Zimmermann: Ulm University, Institute of Business Analytics

A chapter in People, Society, and Ethical Challenges of Information Systems, 2026, pp 275-291 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Integrating AI literacy into K-12 education has become a global strategic initiative. Despite an increase in innovative approaches based on hands-on-experiences, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical insights on their effectiveness. To address this, we examine the effect of experiential learning on building AI literacy in K-12 students. We build on experiential learning theory (ELT) to develop hypotheses and conduct a randomized field experiment with 1346 German high school students. Our results indicate that an experiential learning-based AI lesson (1) can enhance AI literacy in terms of higher AI knowledge, higher AI readiness, and lower AI anxiety, (2) might be more effective than a classical AI lesson in building AI literacy in students with low AI affinity, but slightly increases AI anxiety, and (3) is positively evaluated by teachers.

Keywords: AI literacy; Experiential learning; Field experiment; K-12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-032-08486-6_19

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-08486-6_19

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