Teachers continue to seek more guidance and support in the face of AI evolution.
Teachers continue to seek more guidance and support in the face of AI evolution.
Teachers are engaging in ongoing, rigorous, urgent conversations about how AI should shape their classroom practices and how it’s reshaping their profession. While there’s widespread recognition of the necessity to prepare students for a world with AI, educators’ current sentiments span the entire spectrum: Some express readiness to experiment with AI tools in the classroom, while others see the development of AI tools for teachers as a dystopian undermining of the role of education.
Sample Educator Conversations:
- As educators widely acknowledge, “AI is the future.” Some feel ready to embrace its potential, while others express misgivings about AI tools as a threat to their profession.
- When teachers anticipate AI managing some aspects of their job, some see a future in which the teaching role is more human-centered. In contrast, others envision a future of “reduced certification in teacher positions,” in which “many believe teachers are no longer needed,” leading to lower salaries and decreased teaching positions.
- Some teachers claim the emergence of AI is prompting them to consider leaving the profession, partly because AI questions some traditional skill learning. One teacher points out that since the advent of AI, “we are not just hearing students ask, ‘Why do we need to learn this? … adults are asking, too.”
- In the context of questions about teachers’ roles, some educators resist leveraging AI tools as a time-saving tool in their profession. In response to an article titled “Teachers are embracing ChatGPT-powered grading,” a teacher asks: “Do we need more proof that grades are artificial constructs disconnected from the real work of teaching and learning?”
- Teachers exchange ideas about how to equip students for a world with AI, especially given that they can’t yet imagine the extent of AI capabilities that will exist when students begin their careers.
- A teacher wants to teach students to use AI “with integrity,” and teachers acknowledge, “AI isn’t going anywhere.” Teachers are letting students experiment with AI in the classroom to learn “how it can be helpful.”
- Teachers recognize that students need critical AI literacy “with the caveat that AI will be quite different by the time they start careers.” Still, some also emphasize that critical thinking and literacy skills traditionally taught will also prepare students for decision-making across an AI-shifted landscape.
- Teachers anticipate how the emergence of AI should shape their pedagogical approach, with some actively experimenting now.
- Some suggest they may need to turn away from writing as a means of assessment and wonder how to teach writing skills when students rely on AI. Others suggest “we stay ahead by going back,” suggesting that students write by hand rather than using devices in the classroom.
- Some wonder if shorter writing assignments, “where we can work through the process with them,” will become more necessary.
- Some teachers are already enthusiastically using AI tools. A history teacher using @GetSchoolAI to invite Lincoln to speak with his students said, “I’m having way too much fun with this.”
- Teachers point to the inadequacy of current school and district policy around AI and crave more guidance.
- Some teachers point out that no-tolerance policies regarding late work drive students to use AI more, arguing that “higher stakes = more cheating.”
- “I hope this will be a major discussion at my school,” and “I haven’t seen it yet,” while others report that their districts have developed plagiarism policies.