Exploring Cambodian Students’ Attitudes Toward AI Use in Education: The Roles of Perceived Academic Benefits, Accessibility of AI, and School Context

Considering how artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed education worldwide and the limited research on high school students’ perceptions of AI use, especially in developing countries like Cambodia, this study aims to explore how perceived academic benefits, accessibility of AI, and school location collectively predict Cambodian upper-secondary school students’ attitudes toward AI use in education. A quantitative research design was employed to investigate the relationship between students’ attitudes toward AI use and academic benefits, accessibility of AI, and school location. The sample consisted of 306 upper-secondary school students selected using a combination of convenience and simple random sampling from respondents residing in the capital city and various provinces of Cambodia. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, particularly correlation and multiple regression. The results have shown that perceived academic benefits of AI, accessibility of AI, and school location were significant positive predictors of students’ attitudes toward AI use, collectively explaining 57.1% of the variance. It is noteworthy that the perceived academic benefits presented the strongest influence, followed by accessibility of AI. Meanwhile, the school location that represented significant contextual disparities also played an important role in predicting students’ attitudes toward AI use. The research provides empirical evidence about the key factors that predict upper-secondary school students’ attitudes toward the use of AI-enabled tools in education in Cambodia. It also offers invaluable and context-specific insights for concerned stakeholders to navigate AI adoption in low-resource educational settings. In addition, it suggests avenues for further research into students’ attitudes toward AI use in education.