Enterprise AI Analysis
Generative AI Use Among Slovenian Lower Secondary Students: Use Patterns and Attitudes
This analysis of Slovenian lower secondary students reveals a clear preference for text-based Generative AI (GenAI) tools in schoolwork, driven primarily by their perceived usefulness. While older students (ninth-graders) show higher text GenAI adoption and perceived utility, teacher support for GenAI remains low and weakly correlated with student usage, indicating largely informal and unguided integration. Multimodal GenAI use (image, audio, video) is minimal, likely reflecting a disconnect between students' broader digital practices and school assessment criteria, which still emphasize written output. These findings suggest that meaningful GenAI integration requires strengthening facilitating conditions, such as clear teacher guidance and structured opportunities, to move beyond informal, text-only applications and foster responsible, pedagogically grounded GenAI practices.
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Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
The TAM proposes that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use shape users' attitudes, behavioral intentions, and ultimately technology usage. In this study, perceived usefulness emerged as the central predictor of text-based GenAI use among students, consistent with TAM's core propositions. This indicates that students are more likely to adopt GenAI when they believe it enhances their academic performance or supports learning tasks effectively.
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
UTAUT extends TAM by including factors like performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The study's operationalization of 'teacher support' aligns with UTAUT's facilitating conditions. The weak association between teacher support and GenAI use suggests that, in this educational context, external support mechanisms are not yet effectively driving adoption, with individual usefulness beliefs being more dominant.
Multimodal GenAI Adoption
The study found significantly lower adoption rates for image, audio, and video generation tools compared to text-based tools. This pattern is attributed to the current opportunity structure of schoolwork, which primarily rewards written products, and a potential school-context gap where students' informal multimodal practices are not integrated into formal academic tasks. Future pedagogical approaches could bridge this gap by creating structured opportunities for multimodal GenAI use.
Grade-Level Differences
Text GenAI use was significantly higher among ninth-grade students compared to seventh and eighth graders, with perceived usefulness also higher among ninth graders. This suggests an 'exposure-utility account' where increased academic demands and opportunities to encounter GenAI in higher grades lead to clearer judgments about its performance gains. Multimodal GenAI use, however, showed no significant grade-level differences, likely due to strong floor effects.
Students report moderate use of text generation tools for schoolwork, significantly more than other modalities. This is likely due to their immediate utility for academic tasks like summarization and drafting.
Student GenAI Adoption Flow
| Modality | Reported Use Frequency | Key Challenges |
|---|---|---|
| Text Generation |
|
High (Mean 3.02/5) |
| Image Generation |
|
Very Low (Mean 1.64/5) |
| Audio/Video Generation |
|
Extremely Low (Mean 1.45-1.52/5) |
The 'Unguided Utility' Scenario
Brief: Despite GenAI's perceived usefulness, particularly in text generation, teacher support remains negligible. This creates a scenario where students use GenAI informally, driven by individual utility beliefs rather than structured pedagogical guidance. This highlights a critical gap in fostering responsible and effective GenAI integration.
Outcome: Informal use of GenAI for efficiency, potential academic integrity risks, and uneven integration across classrooms. Opportunities for guided learning and critical evaluation are missed.
Recommendation: Implement clear school policies and teacher training to integrate GenAI instructionally, focusing on critical evaluation and responsible use.
Source: Arcet, Dolenc, & Kranjec (2026)
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Your Enterprise AI Implementation Roadmap
A structured approach to integrating AI effectively, inspired by the study's insights on adoption and challenges.
Phase 1: Assessment & Policy Development
Conduct a school-wide GenAI readiness assessment and develop clear, ethical usage policies. Engage teachers and students in defining acceptable use cases and integrity guidelines (Weeks 1-4).
Phase 2: Teacher Professional Development
Provide targeted training for teachers on integrating GenAI pedagogically across subjects, focusing on critical evaluation and multimodal applications. Emphasize facilitating conditions and support structures (Weeks 5-8).
Phase 3: Pilot Programs & Curriculum Integration
Launch pilot programs in selected classrooms to test new GenAI-integrated learning activities. Begin integrating multimodal GenAI use cases into existing curriculum frameworks (Weeks 9-16).
Phase 4: Scaling & Continuous Feedback
Expand successful pilot initiatives school-wide, establish feedback mechanisms for ongoing refinement of policies and pedagogical strategies, and monitor student outcomes and attitudes (Months 5+).
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