Research Wednesday | November 6, 2024

Many of you are already seeing the use of AI in classrooms and collaborative teams of teachers. If you ask Chat GPT to identify the ten most important influencers in education, John Hattie is at the top of the list. Here are some observations that John and I have about AI so far:

1)    More than 50% of teachers oppose it because they “don’t have the time.” But Generative AI can generate a lesson plan, assessments, and rubrics linked directly to the relevant curriculum and standards for that school. Hattie estimates that teachers can save 80% of the time they devote to writing these documents from scratch and invest that time in making any necessary improvements to these plans and assessments and providing direct support for students and new teachers.

2)    Some programs being called “AI” are nothing more than databases, leaving a lot of heavy lifting to teachers and administrators.

3)    I fear that when central offices try to control AI, they will stifle innovation and experimentation in schools and classrooms. 

4)    Hattie offers these “big six” ideas for use in the classroom:

• Probative questioning

• Error management (where did it go off target, knowing when to say No to the machine and search elsewhere or ask for help)

• Evaluative thinking (is it ‘good enough’)

• Feedback seekers – more active engagement to know when to move on, when to go deeper, when to consolidate the learning.

• Help-seeking – not afraid to engage in challenge and struggle but knowing when and how to ask for help.

I encourage you to ask principals what their AI policy is. Most don’t have one, leaving teachers to make up their own policies as they go along. The last thing we want to do is get a teacher or administrator in trouble for using it without permission. But teachers and school leaders are kidding themselves if they think that many students are not already using this important technology.