Relating Creative Self-Efficacy and Cognitive Load Development in Adolescents Engaged in an AI-Supported Environment

Creativity is an essential 21st century skill that should be fostered in education to prepare children for their future careers. Several studies indicate the positive influence of creative self-efficacy (CSE) on creativity. Recent research highlights that AI-supported learning environments have the potential to heighten CSE through scaffolding, for example by offering students successful learning experiences and gradually withdrawing support. Moreover, these environments could mitigate cognitive load (CL) – the mental effort required to process information –, a concept that is positively related to CSE. This study investigated how CSE develops and relates to CL in 13 male Australian secondary school students engaging in a three week AI-supported learning programme. Participants worked in small groups to build a Mars Rover, receiving scaffolded support from an AI-based vision analytics tool that uses algorithms to interpret and analyse visual information. Data were collected through repeated self-report measures and analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Results showed a significant increase in CSE across sessions. While CSE was positively associated with CL – in contrary to previous research – this relationship weakened over time. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on AI-supported learning by demonstrating that scaffolded AI tools can promote CSE in adolescents over a short period of time. Moreover, these findings offer promising directions for future research and educational practice. Learning environments similar to the one used in this study, for example, could be integrated into broader curricula and over extended periods of time to foster students’ CSE.