AI literacy for self-regulated learning among pre-service teachers: development and validation of a scale of ethical use, monitoring, motivation, regulation, and evaluation.

INTRODUCTION

Existing AI-literacy measures often emphasize broad knowledge, attitudes, application, or ethical awareness rather than how learners use AI within self-regulated academic learning. This study developed and validated the Multidimensional Aspects of AI Literacy Scale for Pre-Service Teachers (MAILS-PT), which assesses Ethical Use, Metacognitive Monitoring (Monitor), Motivational Regulation (Motivate), Behavioral Regulation (Regulate), and Critical Evaluation (Evaluate).

METHOD: An initial 60-item pool was reduced to 40 items through expert content review. The scale was administered to 420 pre-service teachers recruited in Spring 2025 for exploratory factor analysis and to a separately recruited sample of 684 in Fall 2025 for confirmatory and validation analyses. Ordinal-data methods, reliability analysis, assessment of convergent and discriminant validity, and gender measurement-invariance testing were conducted. A 15-item AI-Assisted Learning Judgment Quiz was used to examine preliminary concurrent associations with a framework-aligned judgment measure.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis retained 30 items, six per dimension; the five-factor solution explained 58.3% of the variance, with primary loadings ranging from 0.639-0.829. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure, χ 2 (395) = 522.90, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.988, TLI = 0.986, RMSEA = 0.022, 90% CI [0.016, 0.027], SRMR = 0.037. Subscale omega values ranged from 0.851-0.889 in the exploratory sample and 0.848-0.874 in the confirmatory sample. AVE values ranged from 0.522-0.583 and HTMT values from 0.029-0.272. Configural, loading, and threshold invariance across gender were supported under the specific ordered-categorical JASP/lavaan parameterization. Ethical Use showed near-zero relationships with the other dimensions. The five subscales jointly explained 41.3% of judgment-quiz variance, R = 0.643, R 2 = 0.413, adjusted R 2 = 0.409, F (5, 678) = 95.48, p < 0.001.

CONCLUSION

MAILS-PT provides preliminary psychometric support for five distinguishable aspects of learning-related AI literacy among pre-service teachers. Subscales should be interpreted separately, with Ethical Use treated as a distinct yet related domain of responsible academic AI use. Quiz associations provide preliminary framework-aligned concurrent evidence, not independent criterion or predictive validity. Further validation across institutions, cultures, and behavioral or longitudinal criteria is needed.