From School AI Readiness to Student AI Literacy: A National Multilevel Mediation Analysis of Institutional Capacity and Teacher Capability
🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the empirical gap in understanding how artificial intelligence (AI) readiness in vocational institutions influences students’ AI literacy. Proposing and validating a 2-2-1 cross-level mediation model, it conceptualizes institutional AI readiness as a multilevel organizational condition. Drawing on nationally representative linked survey data, the research employs multilevel linear modeling and cross-level mediation analysis to uncover the pivotal mediating role of teachers’ collective AI competence. Findings reveal that institutional AI readiness significantly and positively predicts student AI literacy, with teachers’ collective AI competence partially mediating this relationship. This mediating pathway remains robust across regions with varying levels of AI development, underscoring the centrality of teachers’ professional capabilities—rather than general attitudes—as the key mechanism driving student outcomes.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in vocational education systems, yet empirical evidence linking institutional AI readiness to student learning outcomes remains limited. This study develops and tests a 2-2-1 cross-level mediation framework examining how school-level AI readiness is associated with student AI literacy through aggregated teacher mechanisms. Using linked survey data from 1,007 vocational institutions, 156,125 teachers, and 2,379,546 students nationwide, multilevel models were estimated to assess direct, indirect, and contextual effects. Results indicate that overall school AI readiness is positively associated with student AI literacy after adjusting for institutional and regional characteristics. When examined independently, all readiness dimensions show positive associations, while simultaneous modelling suggests that readiness operates as an integrated organisational configuration. Cross-level mediation analyses reveal that aggregated teacher-perceived AI capability partially mediates the relationship between institutional readiness and student literacy, whereas general attitudinal acceptance measures do not demonstrate stable transmission effects. Robustness analyses further show that this readiness-capability-literacy pathway remains structurally stable across heterogeneous regional AI development contexts and under alternative modelling specifications. These findings reposition institutional AI readiness as a multilevel organisational condition linked to student AI literacy, identify collective teacher capability as its central transmission mechanism, and underscore the need to align infrastructural investment with sustained professional capacity development.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
AI readiness
AI literacy
vocational education
institutional capacity
teacher capability
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
cross-level mediation
AI readiness
teacher capability
AI literacy
multilevel modeling
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