S5 E5 - AI: A Tool, Not a Teacher

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This episode discusses the nuanced role of AI in education, emphasizing that while it can enhance teaching, it should not replace the expertise of skilled educators. Listeners learn about cognitive biases impacting knowledge perception and practical strategies for using AI effectively in teacher planning. 

Key points 
• AI tools should support teachers, not replace them 
• The need for teacher expertise when using AI 
• Cognitive bias affects perceived knowledge from AI and online resources 
• Practical examples of using AI in curriculum planning 
• AI's role in contextualizing learning for students 
• Importance of professional development in effective AI use 
• Establishing boundaries for AI to enhance teaching outcomes

For more information about today's episode, visit www.jocelynseamereducation.com

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Episode Transcript

Jocelyn (00:00):
Hi there and welcome to this episode of the Structured
Literacy Podcast brought to youfrom Paraguay, burnie, in the
gorgeous Tasmania.
There is no doubt that theever-growing capabilities of AI
are changing how we live, learnand work.
Every day I'm seeing a new GPTor tool claiming to make

(00:20):
teachers' lives easier andimproving student outcomes.
In this episode, I would liketo share my current perspectives
on the role of AI in curriculumplanning, some cautions for
schools and a couple ofsuggestions for ways that AI can
help lighten our load.
No chatbot or AI platform willever replace our knowledge of

(00:44):
students or the impact that askilled, capable teacher has on
student outcomes.
Teaching and learning isinherently about relationships
and the connection that ateacher has to their content and
students.
Yes, there are evidence-basedstructures and instructional
routines that help us do that,but it is us who evaluate their

(01:06):
impact and respond appropriately.
Ai tools are only as good asthe prompt that is entered into
them.
In order for an AI tool toproduce a high quality
suggestion, the person makingthe suggestion has to know why
they're doing what they're doing.
They have to know thedifference between poor,
mediocre and high quality output.

(01:29):
The output from AI can onlyhelp us achieve high quality
student learning if the personusing it is skilled in teaching
and has sufficient expertise tobe able to craft high quality
instruction.
There's a danger in throwingopen the doors to AI tools and
telling teachers to go for it.
That danger rests in acognitive bias that has been

(01:53):
identified about using theinternet.
In season four, episode six, Ispoke about this bias and we'll
revisit it now.
Fisher and Keel conductedresearch about the impact of the
internet on people'sestimations of knowledge.
They conducted nine separateexperiments and they concluded.

(02:14):
The results of theseexperiments suggest that
searching the internet may causea systematic failure to
recognize the extent to which werely on outsourced knowledge.
Searching for explanations onthe internet inflates
self-assessed knowledge inunrelated domains.
Further research evidencesuggests similar illusions occur

(02:38):
when users search forfact-based information online.
After using Google to retrieveanswers to questions, people
seem to believe that they cameup with these answers on their
own.
They show an increasingcognitive self-esteem, a measure
of confidence in one's ownability to think about and
remember information, andpredict higher performance on a

(03:00):
subsequent trivia quiz to betaken without access to the
internet.
So when we look something uponline, we perceive we're
becoming smarter.
Now there hasn't been the sametype of research done about AI
yet, but there certainly aresuggestions from scientists that
this technology might not besuch a benign tool, messerian

(03:22):
Crockett said recently proposedAI solutions can also exploit
our cognitive limitations,making us vulnerable to
illusions of understanding inwhich we believe we understand
more about the world than weactually do.
At this point in time, thenumber of teachers who deeply
understand cognitive load theory, information processing theory

(03:45):
and the nuance of explicitteaching in a range of contexts
is slowly growing, but I thinkit would be a mistake to assume
that the majority of teachersshare this knowledge.
I would also ask you toexercise caution about assuming
that the creators of AI toolsand custom GPTs have the

(04:07):
required knowledge of cognitivescience and explicit teaching
needed to make those tools dogreat things for you.
I try out tools when I see themso that I can stay on top of
the reality of the working livesof teachers.
I have yet to find one thatI've used and thought well, yes,
this person knew what they weredoing.

(04:29):
There are some tools that allowyou to choose the pedagogy you
want to be used in lessons.
You can choose betweenconstructivist approaches,
discovery approaches,project-based learning,
play-based learning and, yes,explicit teaching is in there as
an option, as if all of theseoptions are equally grounded in
evidence.
And, just in case you'rewondering, they're not.

(04:50):
Even when I select explicitteaching as the option, set the
grade and enter specific detailsabout content and needs of
students, the output I see fallsshort of good.
Invariably, the planningprovided reflects inquiry
approaches with big questions,collaborative sections of

(05:11):
lessons where year one studentsare expected to work in a small
group and complete a detailedgraphic organizer, and other
unrealistic lesson elements.
I've been pretty scathing on myassessment of current AI tools,
so you might be wonderingwhether I think that they have a
place in teacher planning atall.
Well, the answer is that I do,but and this is a huge caveat at

(05:35):
this point in time, in February2025, I think that the place of
AI tools is as an assistant toour efforts, not a replacement
for them.
How do we know the difference?
Well, if we are outsourcing ourthinking about our instructions
, we've crossed the line.
Now, I'm well aware of theirony of this when I write

(05:59):
programs and produce resources,and you might well wonder
whether using a program isn'toutsourcing thinking.
Well, in a way, that argumentmay be valid.
From my perspective, though, Idon't want people outsourcing
their thinking to us.
I want people to have deepknowledge of students, research
and pedagogy so that they knowwhy they're doing what they are

(06:23):
doing and then use our tools tohelp them save time and reduce
cognitive load.
When that happens, that's whenwe see the very best outcomes
for students.
So that's my big takeaway forleaders setting boundaries for
their teachers around use of AIand planning.
We use it to help lighten ouradministrative load and

(06:45):
contextualize learning to helpour students get the best
outcomes, not to do the thinkingfor us.
If we are approaching thesession with the AI tool with
the thought in our minds of I'mnot sure how to teach X, y, z,
then we need to stop.
Some examples of how we mightactually use these AI tools to

(07:12):
support us rather than do ourthinking for us are as follows.
Here's one example Choose atext that aligns with house or
science units to use in partnerreading in the classroom.
This is a great thing to do.
Then upload the text into chat,bt or CLAUDE CLAUDE is my
favorite these days C-L-A-U-D-Ethe writing is much more natural

(07:35):
and give it the followingprompt I am planning lessons for
my year we'll say four class topractice writing complex
sentences with the subordinatingconjunction when.
Use the attached passage as thebasis of this practice and
provide me with 20 sets ofindependent clauses that can be

(07:57):
used for sentence combining.
I say ask for 20, because theywon't all be good and you'll
probably have to discard abouthalf of them Once you have the
pairs of independent clauses,then ask it to provide 20 simple
sentences that can be used forsentence expansion.
In this way, you're able toconnect your syntax instruction

(08:20):
with the reading the studentsare doing in partner reading and
the other curriculum areas, andyou're getting this really nice
connection across the elementsof the literacy block.
You've also just saved yourselfabout an hour and a half of
prep time, but you haven'toutsourced your thinking.
You could have sat there andmanually found those independent

(08:42):
clauses, but you've taken ashortcut.
Ai tools can also be used tocontextualize materials to
students.
A teacher in a school I wasworking with was introducing
paired reading to her year fivesix class and she knew they were
not excited by the idea becausethey hadn't come through the
grades with this in place, soshe used an AI tool to help her

(09:06):
write passages that included acouple of the students each time
.
What this did was that itreally hooked the students.
They were excited to see whowas going to be in the next
passage.
Now she was specific about thedetails in the passage, what the
events were, how long thepassage would be and all of the
other things, but the AI toolhelped lighten her cognitive

(09:29):
load and save her time Again.
She didn't outsource herthinking, just the
time-consuming admin.
There is no doubt that theadvances in AI technology over
the last couple of years hasimpacted our working lives.
As with all technologicaladvances, there are positives
and negatives associated with it.

(09:50):
The key to navigating thesechanges is to ask ourselves who
is doing the driving.
Are we making the tools workfor us or are we working for the
tools?
Let's not take our eye off theneed to build knowledge,
capacity and experience withinour teams so that we can truly

(10:11):
harness the power of AI to helpus, help our students to achieve
great things, so that they canleave the world a better place.
That's all from me for now,until next week.
Happy teaching, bye.