Exploring Brazilian Teachers’ Perceptions and a priori Needs to Design Smart Classrooms

Smart classrooms offer innovative opportunities to enhance teaching and learning. However, most existing research in this field predominantly focuses on investigating specific technical aspects of the design of the innovation rather than the human interaction with the innovation. In particular, there is very limited research on how smart classrooms address the pedagogical needs of teachers. Filling this gap, we conducted a qualitative study with 410 Brazilian teachers based on inductive Thematic Analysis exploring teachers’ perceptions of their subjective and a priori needs in the educational context, aiming to finally understand how these needs relate to smart classrooms and how they can inform the design of education policies that support the implementation of smart classrooms. The main findings indicate that teachers expressed the need to automate their bureaucratic tasks and highlighted the importance of having more time for study and lesson planning. They also reported the need for better resources, structure, and conditions for themselves and their students and the need to enhance their skills and resources to understand better and meet individual students’ needs. Based on these findings, we provide a research agenda with policy recommendations to improve the design and implementation of smart classrooms. Our study contributes to Artificial Intelligence in Education and the formulation of education policies by focusing on teachers’ perceptions and a priori needs. Focusing on teachers’ needs is essential for pushing the boundaries of these fields and enabling the use of smart classrooms to support more effective teaching and learning practices.