ChatGPT will celebrate its second birthday this November. In education, it has been a game changer that has both challenged and excited our teachers. Indeed, a couple of weeks after it first launched, a teacher asked me in all sincerity whether their job was at stake. Will teachers become expendable?
The answer to that question is not as straightforward as one might imagine. On the one hand, online education has demonstrated that in many cases, courses can be taught asynchronously; and AI is so sophisticated now, why bring in a human who may be less objective?
The counter-argument is that teachers bring the human element to the story; with sensitivity, identifying and nurturing individual needs of each and every learner. We don’t get the personal touch when getting feedback from a chatbot.
Yet, last June it was announced that GPT4 had for the first time defied the Turing Test (a test that has for decades outwitted computers by identifying them as non-human).
Educators will adapt and embrace, however they will also remain essential and relevant
Our recent celebration of World Teacher’s Day on October 8 was a stark reminder of how important this role is. At Verdala International School (VIS), we applauded our educators; we recognised their hard work and the exemplary individual attention they frequently demonstrate.
Staff who take the time to sit with students at break-time, getting to know them beyond the classroom, are often attentively helping students navigate their social-emotional journey. It is highly questionable whether this could be replaced by a robot in the younger years, where engagement with people is an essential part of learning. One only has to look at the “lost learning” data coming out of COVID to be reminded of how important interpersonal connections are to learning experiences. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky would argue they are essential.
US psychologist Martin Seligman refers to this as the PERMA model (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment), which, when flourishing, contributes to well-being. Learning online, with an AI teacher, may offer academic improvement but won’t necessarily provide those pieces. On the other hand, if you spoke to a teenager who plays Minecraft, where they are learning through play, chatting with the people through a chatbox and being simultaneously creative, one might argue that all these boxes are ticked.
Many schools are behind the curve on this and clambering to write policies that will contain the issues emerging out of this Pandora’s box. At VIS, our strategic goal is “to empower our staff and students to realise the benefits of integrating AI into teaching and learning while understanding and mitigating the potential risks”. Training teachers is key to this process as we need to be using the tools alongside our students.
AI can help reduce a teacher’s workload monumentally by helping write creative lesson plans, generate report comments or develop exciting media that in turn inspires students. However, this does require a shift in mindset, as teachers are creatures of habit, or it may even feel wrong to rely on AI.
Integrity is key to the success of AI and education. AI can be applied in many ways during the process, meaning assessment may no longer be in a level playing field. However, as with the use of copying and pasting from Google before, we need to engage with the ethical issues around the process.
One solution is for a scaffolded approach that shows transparently how much AI has been used. Students can use a tool that can write an essay plan, draw in useful quotes and create graphs at the click of a button as long as it is referenced for the teacher to assess the critical thinking taking place. Students may need to prove their own abilities and authenticity through a viva voce (students orally defending their work) as part of the assessment process.
US psychologist Carl Rogers said: “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” Educators will adapt and embrace, however they will also remain essential and relevant. They have not yet created the android who can supervise students in the playground, mediate between two teenagers in the middle of a personal drama, or change the tack of a lesson simply because it’s a teachable moment.
Totty Aris is head, Verdala International School.