AI for Teachers: Development Initiatives

Around nine years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) rocked the planet. Those large language models (LLMs) now reach into every aspect of our lives, from leisure to learning. Teachers can make use of AI tools to reduce their workload so they can devote more time to guiding students' AI learning efforts. Developing suitable AI skills will help you fold AI into your classroom activities with confidence.

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AI for Teachers: Core Skills

The DfE has gone out of its way to publish materials for teachers to master incorporating AI into their classroom routines¹. All of this and more we cover in our exposé of the DfE's policies for AI in schools. Here, we aim to detail the most helpful AI skills teachers can master quickly.

Administration and Planning Skills

One of the most frustrating aspects of modern teaching is how bogged down in paperwork the job has become. Take a second to think about all the administrative tasks teachers complete each day.

These are time-consuming, routine tasks that AI platforms such as Alia and LessonDeck can manage, albeit with keen oversight. Mastering the platforms your school has enlisted to automate these tasks requires a few hours a week, at most².

Feedback and Assessment Skills

Teachers staying up late to grade papers is a time-tested trope with more than a grain of truth to it. As the numbers above show³, most of their time is spent on tasks other than teaching, which includes working weekends to mark papers and provide students with feedback. With the right AI skills, teachers can streamline these tasks, finally freeing their evenings and weekends.

You'll need generative AI tools to both create assignments and evaluate your students' work. First, you have to upload what you want the AI to assess - for instance, your lecture notes, or the study module you'll quiz your students on. That is, if your school hasn't already uploaded national curriculum learning materials.

Next, prompt your AI platform to create the content to be assessed, based on what you have input. You might even task it with creating slightly different versions of the quiz to present your students with an extra challenge. You may make these assessments as complex as you'd like, even breaking them into smaller assignments to be completed over several days.

If you're generating multiple-choice tests, AI can deliver immediate results and feedback for your students. You may instruct your AI tool to explain why the student got the answer wrong, or command the AI to make the comments brief, so you can do the explaining.

As ever, when learning a new skill, it might take you a few months to get good at using AI for assessment and feedback.

Skills to Use in the Classroom

In this category, AI tools truly shine. Teachers can create study materials, worksheets, and individualised activities for students of all abilities. These tools present teachers with a wealth of opportunities to enrich their students' learning experience.

Again, we stress that, among the skills teachers must master, prompt-crafting sits high on the list. Prompt-crafting means writing unambiguous prompts into the AI platform, such that it will return the desired results. Note that it takes some time and effort to know how to write a prompt that will make AI do what you want it to do.

Responsible and Ethical AI Usage

AI can empower the curiosity of children by enabling them to self-learn through intelligent tools.

Sugara Mitra, computer scientist and educational theorist

When it comes to responsible, ethical AI usage, teachers have a dual mandate. They must uphold all the privacy laws set forth by the UK GDPR and maintain a tight lid on students' data.

And then, we have cheating. In 2023, two years before the DfE implemented AI rules for schools, universities were investigating students for using AI to cheat on their assignments⁵.

Issues like transparency, accountability, and academic integrity make AI in the classroom an ethical quagmire. Students may wonder why AI is fine for these tasks but not those. Teachers will be expected to instil principles of responsible AI use in their students. But the current guidelines are bound to shift as we learn how AI in schools works.

The trouble is, nobody knows the full extent of what AI is capable of; it is still in its own early growth stages. In the end, AI for lesson planning, worksheet creation, and managing safe-to-automate tasks holds a lot of promise. Wrangling with deeper ethical issues AI presents will take some time and lots of coordination, both with your colleagues and with your leadership.

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Resources and AI Tools for Teachers

It hardly needs saying that teachers have far too much on their plates to actively monitor AI effects and opportunities. Even with all the AI tools for teachers meant to lessen their workload, being on the front line of cutting-edge technology deployment is bound to take its toll. This clip serves as a handy guide, matching the AI tool with the skills you need to use it efficiently.

Getting Started With AI for Teachers

The UK schools' AI rollout is proposed to be gradual, with lots of support and training in the offing. You will likely take part in the UK AI CPD initiatives, earning certificates for every module completed (see below).

But all that doesn't mean you have to fully embrace AI in your classroom right away. In fact, it would probably be better if you didn't, particularly if you don't have much experience using AI tools. These tips may take you from dipping your toes into the water to plunging in and making the most of your AI suite.

As AI tools reach deeper into education initiatives around the world, the list of AI-in-education media channels keeps growing. The popular SENDCast addresses issues SEND pupils and teachers face, while the Edtech Podcast addresses current developments and issues in deploying edtech in schools. This particular episode discusses the future of child safety online.

AI Skills Certified Assessment

Becoming a chartered teacher is among the highest professional recommendations any educator can strive for. Achieving that benchmark takes around two years and requires the completion of four assessment units.

You might already know that the Chartered College of Teaching has been instrumental in helping the DfE formulate its policies for AI in education. So, it's no stretch for that body to include an assessment for AI training among its other certification units.