Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.1186/s40594-025-00527-5
Publication Title
International Journal of STEM Education
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
9 (1-18)
Abstract
Background, context, and purpose of the study: Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, holding promising potential for supporting the design and implementation of quality STEM education. However, there is a lack of data-based research studying the diverse perceptions of AI in STEM education as conveyed on social media, the factors that influence those perceptions, or the change in those perceptions over time among public audiences. Results, the main findings: The purpose of this study was to examine public perceptions of AI in STEM education by analyzing X posts (Tweets) between 04/28/2020 and 04/27/2023. We used a machine learning-based sentiment analysis to analyze the public's perception of AI and the factors that influence it. Findings suggest a range of perceptions among X users regarding AI in STEM education, with most sentiments neutral and positive. However, some negative sentiments were also identified, suggesting that some users may be wary of AI's potential impact on STEM education. Conclusions: This work will contribute to government, policymakers, and educators in making necessary decisions and improving overall public awareness of AI in STEM education. Additionally, the results of this study suggest that further research is needed to better understand public sentiment about AI in STEM education.
Rights
© 2025 The Authors.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this license to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Data Availability
Article states: "The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."
ORCID
0000-0001-8560-779X (Smith-Mutegi), 0000-0001-5171-5186 (Mamo), 0000-0002-3365-7354 (Kim), 0000-0002-1775-8219 (Crompton),
Original Publication Citation
Smith-Mutegi, D., Mamo, Y., Kim, J., Crompton, H., & McConnell, M. (2025). Perceptions of STEM education and artificial intelligence: A Twitter (X) sentiment analysis. International Journal of STEM Education, 12(1), 1-18, Article 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-025-00527-5
Repository Citation
Smith-Mutegi, Demetrice; Mamo, Yoseph; Kim, Jinhee; Crompton, Helen; and McConnell, Matthew, "Perceptions of STEM Education and Artificial Intelligence: A Twitter (X) Sentiment Analysis" (2025). Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications. 271.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/teachinglearning_fac_pubs/271
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Technology Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons, Social Media Commons
