From leadership research to district action: The predictive effects of AI anxiety on 21st-century skills and lifelong learning tendencies: a study of pre-service teachers in Northern Cyprus

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Abstract Introduction The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into education presents a significant psychological challenge for students, potentially eliciting specific anxieties that may influence the development of 21st-century competencies and lifelong learning tendencies. This study examines the predictive effects of AI anxiety dimensions (Learning AI, Job Replacement, Sociotechnical Blindness, and AI Configuration) on 21st-century skills and lifelong learning tendencies among pre-service teachers in Northern Cyprus. Methods Using a quantitative design, data were collected from 396 pre-service teachers enrolled in education faculties. Validated scales for AI Anxiety, Multidimensional 21st-century Skills, and Lifelong Learning were administered. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses to determine the predictive power of specific AI anxiety dimensions on distinct skill domains. Results While overall AI anxiety did not predict 21st-century skills, specific dimensions showed selective predictive power. Learning AI anxiety was a significant negative predictor of Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Career Awareness. Job Replacement anxiety was a significant negative predictor of Social Responsibility and Leadership. Conversely, Sociotechnical Blindness emerged as a significant positive predictor of Social Responsibility and Leadership. The AI Configuration dimension and lifelong learning tendencies were not significantly predicted by these anxieties. Discussion The findings indicate that AI anxiety is multidimensional and affects specific 21st-century skill domains selectively. Because lifelong learning orientations remained stable, educational interventions should move beyond broad AI literacy and instead target specific psychological concerns, such as learning-related anxiety and fears regarding job replacement, to better support future educators. Keywords: 21st-century skills, AI anxiety, educational psychology, higher education, lifelong learning, pre-service teachers

Study methods

The quantitative design in the study was cross-sectional, as it aimed at examining the predictive relationships between the sub-dimensions that constitute AI anxiety, 21st-century skills, and lifelong learning tendencies among pre-service teachers. Linear and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the predictability of independent variables on the dependent variables, which are appropriate techniques for evaluating the contribution of individual predictors to outcome measures (Creswell and Guetterman, 2018). To determine the generalized effect of AI anxiety on broad student outcomes, H1 and H2 used aggregate scores of AI anxiety, whereas the multidimensional nature of the construct was later tested in H3 to determine domain-specific differences, as postulated by the (Wang and Wang 2019) framework.

Limitations

There are numerous limitations to this study that require additional investigation. One limitation of this study is the cross-sectional design that restricts causal inference and requires longitudinal studies to assess the temporal progression of the interplay between AI anxiety and skills. A further limitation concerns the composition of the sample. Although data were collected across four universities in Northern Cyprus, the sample predominantly comprised Turkish Cypriot and Turkish students enrolled in undergraduate education departments, with limited disciplinary and cultural diversity. Consequently, the findings cannot be assumed to generalize to pre-service teachers from different cultural backgrounds or to students from other disciplines (Henrich et al., 2010). Another limitation is that the given sample was restricted to pre-service teachers, self-reported 21st-century skill ratings are subject to social desirability bias. Future teachers may perceive these competencies as professional expectations and consequently overestimate their competence as opposed to what independent assessments might reveal.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one school improvement question with teachers. Protect a short shared planning cycle, agree an instructional change and use a common rubric for examining student work. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Review implementation fidelity, teacher time and independently scored student work against a recorded baseline. Examine access differences and competing explanations before attributing changes to leadership. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Çiğdem Cantaş; Cevat Celep; Özgür Batur. The predictive effects of AI anxiety on 21st-century skills and lifelong learning tendencies: a study of pre-service teachers in Northern Cyprus. Frontiers in Psychology (2026-05-13). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1810689

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.