EFL Teachers as Curators vs. Creators: The Impact of AI-Assisted Materials Differentiation on Mixed-Ability Classrooms and Teacher Workload

In the contemporary landscape of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction, the pedagogical imperative to address learner heterogeneity has precipitated unprecedented challenges regarding teacher workload, administrative fatigue, and cognitive exhaustion. Within public secondary education contexts characterized by mixed-ability classrooms, centralized curricula, and stringent assessment benchmarks, EFL instructors have traditionally functioned under an unsustainable paradigm as de facto “content creators” tasked with designing, scaffolding, and adapting heterogeneous pedagogical artifacts ex nihilo. This quasi-experimental study explores a transformative pedagogical pivot: reconceptualizing teachers from solitary creators to critical “curators” through the systematic integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for materials differentiation. The investigation engaged ۳۱ in-service female EFL teachers across lower- and upper-secondary public girls’ schools in Iran over a structured six-session, twelve-week professional development intervention. Utilizing a one-group pretest-posttest design alongside a robust preparatory pilot study (N=۱۲), data were gathered through the Teacher Workload Scale (TWS) and the Differentiated Instruction Efficacy Scale (DIES). Parametric inferential analyses (paired-samples t-tests and repeated-measures multivariate modeling) revealed statistically significant and substantial reductions in instructional preparation duration (t(۳۰)=۸.۷۴,p<.۰۰۱,d=۱.۵۷) alongside pronounced enhancements in differentiation self-efficacy (t(۳۰)=−۹.۲۱,p<.۰۰۱,d=۱.۶۵). These quantitative shifts were mediated by the deliberate cultivation of prompt engineering literacies and critical algorithmic discernment. This paper delineates the theoretical underpinnings of connectivist curation, provides granular empirical documentation of the intervention, and discusses implications for educational policy, teacher agency, and sustainable instructional practices in centralized educational ecologies.

کلیدواژه ها:

Generative Artificial Intelligence ، Materials Differentiation ، Mixed-Ability Classrooms ، Teacher Workload ، Teacher-as-Curator.