“The Mediating Role of Social-Emotional Competence in the Relationship between Cognitive Flexibility and Attitude Toward AI among Pre-service Teachers.”

Abstract

The study intended to examine the mediating effect of social-emotional competence in the connection between cognitive flexibility and attitudes towards artificial intelligence among pre-service teachers. The research methodology adopted is descriptive, and purposive sample of three hundred (300) pre-service teachers in government, government aided and private colleges in the Punjab region was taken. The researchers used the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis and Vander Wal, 2010), the Social-Emotional Competence Questionnaire (S. and R., 2019) and an Attitude toward AI Scale (Mukherjee, S. and Dasgupta, S. 2024) to conduct the research. The results of the correlation analysis indicated that there was a moderate positive correlation between cognitive flexibility, social-emotional competence, and attitudes toward AI among pre-service teachers. Moreover, multiple regression analysis revealed that cognitive flexibility and social-emotional competence were both significant contributors to explaining a significant percentage of variance in attitudes towards AI among the participants. Path analysis proved that social-emotional competence mediates the connection between cognitive flexibility and attitude toward AI. The paper finishes with an explanation of the implications on education, which includes the proposal that teacher education programmes need to include training to enhance both cognitive and social-emotional skills to equip future educators to positively adapt to AI-driven educational settings. This integration might not only help them become professionally prepared but also more able to participate in technology mediated classrooms.