Paper Details

Name: Nikhil Thakur & Ravinder Singh Madhan
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-13, Issue-2, Year-2026 (July-December)
Page Number: 26-40
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22207294

ABSTRACT
Digital infrastructure can create the conditions for technology-supported teaching without ensuring that those conditions become regular or pedagogically purposeful classroom practice. The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) adds a second distinction between exposure to emerging tools and professional readiness to evaluate and use them responsibly. This study examined how school digital-readiness conditions, teacher AI readiness and digital pedagogical practices were associated with classroom digital-resource utilization and teacher-perceived student learning and engagement. A quantitative cross-sectional dataset comprising 998 school-class records from 300 government high and senior secondary schools in four districts of Himachal Pradesh was linked to school-level administrative indicators through the 11-digit UDISE+ code. School context was represented by a 0-1 Digital Readiness Index (DRI) and an empirically derived four-category readiness typology; the typology was used in adjusted models to preserve distinct infrastructure configurations. Teacher AI Readiness Score (TAIRS) and Perceived Student Learning and Engagement Score (PSLES) were supported by one-factor solutions and strong McDonald’s omega coefficients. Although 98.4% of records reported access to at least one functional device and 75.8% reported functional internet during teaching, regular digital-screen use was reported in 52.5%. Previous GenAI use was reported in 82.8%, but only 10.0% reported formal AI-related training and 80.5% reported no or only slight confidence in evaluating AI-generated educational content. Inquiry-oriented digital practice had the largest adjusted association with regular utilization (28.5 percentage points per category, p < .001). More frequent classroom utilization, inquiry-oriented practice and TAIRS were positively associated with PSLES, while Crisis Zone records remained 11.9 percentage points below Elite records after adjustment. The findings indicate that structural readiness establishes opportunity, whereas pedagogical practice and evaluative capability shape how that opportunity is translated into classroom integration.

Keywords: digital readiness; teacher AI readiness; generative artificial intelligence; digital pedagogy; classroom integration; government schools; India