AI offers significant educational impact—for the classroom teacher and the student—if we start from first principles

Recently, UK data company Faculty AI was awarded the ￡3 million contract to alleviate the burden of routine lesson planning, marking homework, and assisting with routine school admin in the UK.  Teachers may be rightfully frightened by the thought of AI taking over the marking of student work, or even planning lessons.  However, maybe the answer lies in educators starting the AI journey from first principles — and these always begin in the classroom.

The UK government has said Faculty AI’s tool will be trained on real life curriculum and data they provide, rather than relying on gen AI which is often used in classrooms today and is known for its errors.  As a school leader, it is important you ask what data AI technology is using before implementing it in your school.  Quality data trained correctly has the power to personalise learning in overcrowded classrooms, support the classroom teacher without them having to question the authenticity and reliability of the tool (such as gen AI), and augment the students’ positive learning experience in the classroom.

Teachers struggle every day with the pressure to connect with and support every single pupil in their class in a meaningful and timely way.  Reaching students in the teachable moment is essential for their cognitive development and ability to self-reflect.  No teacher — no matter how good and even with extra classroom support — can hope to achieve this one-to-one response and be there for all their pupils at their most significant learning moments.  With the average class size increasing in UK primary schools, the reality is many pupils never reach their full potential as writers.  As educators, we want to set our students up for success beyond their schooling years.

Some pupils will be in the right place at the right time as the teacher passes their table to provide just the exact piece of feedback to take their learning forward.  But far more pupils will be floundering behind with barely a sentence achieved, or for the most challenged will be staring at a blank page save only their name and possibly the date.  This is where AI can assist.  The feedback capabilities of educational AI tools mean students get access to critical feedback, when and where they need it.  This doesn’t replace the classroom teacher, but rather means the onus is on the student to make improvements to their work based on quality feedback you can trust.  Support is the key word here.  AI technologies should support the teacher, not replace the teacher.

As much as UK companies are beginning this technological journey, one NZ education company has been on a ten-year AI journey already and won awards for its innovation.  Writer’s Toolbox, a pioneer in this area, has specially-engineered AI that teaches students of any age or ability how to write better.  In large-scale research, the company has more than exceeded the aforementioned challenges, seeing double to ten times the usual growth rates in student writing improvement.  When pupils are writing, at the push of a button, instant feedback provides recognition of the good things to be pleased with and points for further development.  It doesn’t take away from the pupil’s ideas or uniqueness, but rather teaches options for how to use the building blocks of composition/writing, such as sentences, punctation, and paragraphs, while developing the very skills they need to find their own voice.  Nor does it take away the student-teacher relationship, but rather facilitates smarter conversations on how a student made improvements to their work.  

As AI continues to master many skills across all areas of our personal and professional lives, it is important to remember that the unique quality and creativity of the human voice will always remain on par with or better than the voices generated by AI.  Should AI replace the teacher?  Never.  But if we use it correctly and expect the right things of it, AI as a learning tool in education will ensure the human voice remains at the forefront of learning and empower teachers with the time to do what they love — teach.

Kathryn Harper-Quinn MBE