This study examines the impact of structured instruction on artificial intelligence (AI) use for improving academic writing in a non-English context. Participants included first-year students enrolled in a teacher education program, including some with disabilities. Three writing tasks were designed: typed essay, AI-based essay, and a critical AI use essay. The repeated measures analyses revealed that targeted AI integration supported overall writing quality, as indicated by improvements in language use, structure, and content. Additionally, students felt more confident when familiarizing themselves with effective prompt strategies. Students with learning difficulties exhibited the most substantial progress, demonstrating enhanced performance and self-efficacy. Unexpectedly, participants perceived typed essays as offering greater equity of access, a finding attributed to limited AI familiarity at the time of the study.
Highlights:
- When students used AI collaboratively, higher quality outputs were produced
- Students with disabilities showed notable gains and reduced writing anxiety with AI
- Privacy concerns varied, with students with disabilities feeling more protected by AI
- Students rated traditional essay tasks as offering more equity in access than AI-based tasks
- AI-based tasks offered more positive experiences than traditional writing tasks
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