Scilight Press

This study aims to investigate the current status of AI competencies among Chinese high school students using quantitative research methods. By integrating UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Students with China’s educational practices, a questionnaire was developed. Altogether, 300 students from eight high schools joined the research. SPSS 26.0 was used for reliability and validity tests, exploratory factor analysis, and group difference analysis. The results show that the questionnaire has good reliability and validity (Cronbach’s α = 0.974, KMO=0.912, Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant with p < 0.001, cumulative variance explained 72.0%). Besides, Chinese high school students’ AI competencies exhibit a typical pattern of “strong in technology, weak in ethics, and insufficient in creativity”, with technical application ability (mean = 3.7) significantly higher than ethical assessment (mean = 3.0) and system design (mean = 2.8). What’s more, students in the eastern region have significantly better overall competencies than those in the central and western regions (p < 0.05), with the largest gap in the technical application dimension (mean difference = 0.7) and the smallest gap in the ethical dimension (mean difference = 0.3). The study recommends optimizing high school curricula by adding modules for ethical debates and interdisciplinary projects and promoting equitable distribution of educational resources. This research empirically supports global AI education standardization and offers a scientific basis for AI education policies and curriculum design in China’s high schools.