Everyone is talking about AI: how will it affect your teaching?

Research has shown that artificial intelligence (AI) could improve the education system, providing opportunity for both students and teachers. However, the use of AI in schools also presents risks and challenges.

An event held in June, jointly organised by the Society and the Historical Association, brought together 60 primary and secondary school teachers and associated awarding bodies, to uncover how AI impacts teaching and assessment.

Paul Logue, Head of Geography at St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, talked about the practical uses of AI in the geography classroom. From administrative tasks (such as writing emails and job adverts) and creating resources, to helping students understand complex concepts and improving teachers' subject knowledge, the deployment of AI in schools is accelerating quickly and in wide-ranging ways, demanding its benefits, as well as its challenges, be understood.

For Paul, AI’s benefits range from “simple answers to questions, refreshers on concepts, and seeking new examples and viewpoints on how I teach something…to massive time-saving hacks”.

While AI offers plenty of opportunities to enhance geographical skills and knowledge in schools, this needs to be implemented with rigor and caution. On challenges, Paul said: “I think it is important to remember that AI can never replace you as a teacher. Subject knowledge still is, and always will be, king when it comes to AI.As useful as the large language models are for retrieving valuable information, disinformation largely still exists out there and it will be up to teachers’ subject knowledge to filter this out”. On homework and coursework, Paul suggested AI “could pose a threat too as plagiarism levels could explode”. 

Overall, while it is important to acknowledge AI’s limitations, Paul also encouraged teachers to embrace the development of AI in schools. “AI is changing the nature of things very quickly. I believe every teacher should get on board the AI train now so they don’t get left behind. This could be a real game changer in reducing the administrative workload of the standard classroom teacher, which is my number one challenge as a teacher”, he said.

AI is an emerging field with its uptake in teaching still new. For teachers who want to find out more about this topic, Paul suggests referring to the Teacher Development Trust for advice for school leaders, and reading a blog post by Kate Stockings, who has collected together a broad number of resources.