Why AI Chatbot will never replace authentic learning ....

Learning happens...

As we are recovering and surveying the aftermath of Covid-19, we must now also look around at the digital revolution that is transforming the world at a rate previously unthinkable.

New Technology

New technology is a challenge to education on two fronts. Firstly, it is a challenge to how we teach. Secondly, it is a challenge to what we teach.

The challenge and change is accelerating and not slowing – we now have AI being trained to generate realistic human text, to create articles, poetry, stories, news reports and dialogue using just a small amount of input. A deep understanding of the interaction between human-machine relationships is needed in order to maintain, in education human value and and what this means.

We need to rethink education it is no longer just a teachers standing at the front of a classroom, imparting information to a group of children writing things down on pieces of paper.

The terminal exam is also becoming a tool which is not fit for purpose. Teaching and learning in the traditional ways only fit some students and is being seen as a bygone era of pedagogy and assessment.

We are experiencing an era of change or even a change of era.

The challenges that we face today, have sparked interest to create a better world.

Education needs to rethink. For students to thrive and make a difference, we need to redesign learning.

It is time to challenge what we teach, why we teach it and and how we teach it in order to empower the next generation of students with the confidence – and the agency – to make a difference.

Certainly, the challenges confronting us today are different in complexity, they are more global for example the climate emergency, there are may global areas of crisis physically and morally. We need to consider how to develop and foster a sense of shared humanity. 

A deep understanding of the interaction between humans and AI needs to be established.

The concept of imparting information to a group of children writing things down on pieces of paper and then being tested by exam is not longer effective. It is time to think deeply about pedagogy and assessment. We have already seen that digital teaching, digital assessment and digital qualifications are here and are flourishing.

Everyday technology provides us with immediate information faster, better and more reliable. Employers no longer need people to regurgitate facts but need skillsets that will be creative, able to prioritise, and to make moral and quite difficult ethical decisions. 

The digital revolution challenges us to creatively question almost every aspect of our work in schools. Developing empathy and understanding are key in the classroom.

As societies and cultures change they have an impact on curricula being taught - we need to involve young people when we think about what we teach them, and we need to think of their anxiety mental health and wellbeing.

Exams cause anxiety. Internally-marked work as part of assessment which involves teamwork, inquiry and creativity creates better and happier students.

Learning requires perseverance and stamina but with agency and the use of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes and focusing on students valuing what the world thinking critically, finding solutions, and being inspired by teachers who are supporting then to flourish, as individuals, requires a more progressive and forward-thinking approach to the classroom.

Learning communities

A focus on learning communities ensuring that all students are inspired, motivated, involved in their learning and receive intervention and support to help them with their learning journey when they need it, no matter who their teacher is - keeping the collective purpose in mind is what is required.

Teaching environments should provide the most authentic and valid ways to assess student mastery by involving the student and empowering them to find the most creative way of proving that they have achieved the desired learning intention.

The curriculum standard for each skill or concept that each student must achieve should be are made clear to the student who takes on the leadership of their own learning– so the teacher becomes the inspirer and the motivator, and the learner personalises learning – the learner controls the pace of learning.

Thus teachers can them focus their efforts on crucial questioning related to learning and also generate motivational tools that focus, on essential outcomes, using different kinds of assessment, analyses of student achievement, and strategies for improving results. The students are fully involved in the learning conversations –a collective responsibility towards their learning.

For meaningful collaboration to occur, now need to stop focusing on “What are we expected to teach?” to “How will we know when each student has learned?”

Improving student achievement becomes a routine, using data, using learning conversations, using evidence of learning, to inform teaching and learning with the teacher providing regular ideas, materials, strategies, to inform the learners and the professional learning community.

This is a powerful way of working to focus on learning rather than teaching, working collaboratively on matters related to learning, and accountability now becomes a measure of continual improvement.

The role of the student

The learner focus becomes, what do I want to know, understand, and be able to do? How will I demonstrate that I have learned it? What will I do when I'm not learning? What will I do when I have already learned it? They become accountable for their own learning. Thus classrooms become  learning hubs, the curriculum design provides personalised pathways so students can co-construct their own learning journeys, through cycles of inquiry.

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.”  — Oscar Wilde

Most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without it being taught to us, how to walk, how to talk, how to eat. In many schools, memorisation is mistaken for learning. Attainment is mistaken for progress. Summative is mistaken for formative. Assessment for learning is mistaken for assessment of learning. But what matters to our learners most is the journey, the progress and most important the believe that the CAN.

When teaching becomes synonymous with the motivation to learn we begin to get somewhere. The reason we are in teaching is that we believe that what happens in the classroom leads to student learning. But learners need to be motivated and inspired to want to learn and to take action.

According to John Hattie, what teachers collectively believe, impacts greatly on student outcomes. If teachers all focus on learning collaboratively then learning happens.

I use three indicators to motivate for learning against any identified learning intentions or curriculum objectives. Allow the students to be creative in the way they learn, ensure that they think deeper and more critically explaining why, and also focus on asking them to communicate their learning using their own selected media. Different situations different styles of learning.

What I find happens in the classroom is there is then a maximum impact on student learning as it comes alive. It is about real life and students relate to it. They are digging deeper, they are taking ownership of their own learning and being creative according to their own learning styles. Where collaboratively teachers believe that a focuses action can make a real difference to student learning, almost always the evidence suggest that they do! A teacher is an inspirer and a motivator.

There is no doubt that teacher expert knowledge and understanding is important, after all, our teachers are well qualified and in many cases scholars. However, deep learning happens when teachers are more imaginative and creative, when they use challenging questions, when their discussions are insightful and have a link to real life, when there is regular reflection, when learners are allowed to be enterprising, independent, they use critical thinking and problem solving to challenge their - and the teachers thinking.

Based on my experience collaborative, evidence-based professional conversations amongst teachers on a daily basis using evidence-driven strategies, have most impact on learning. Data matters. Recently, I used the GL Education – CAT4 and NGRT to identify students start points. We collectively found that the weakness was in verbal and reading comprehension.

This with a focused strategy on literacy, drop everything and read, write, literacy intervention - within one term we experienced a 10% increase in SAS. ( Standard Age Scores ). Focused intervention, together with creativity in what students read, how they read, how they explain, describe, write, verbalise, communicate – with a whole team focus, magic happened. No AI or ChatBot can mimic that.

Teachers that can, and believe that everyone can succeed bring dramatic changes to self-confidence and self-belief inspiring a hunger for learning.

Leadership of learning

Creating this leadership of learning, for teachers and students there is no limit, as the success and the quality of learning, becomes not about the test but by creating a classroom experience for best learning.

A conscious move from ‘teaching’ to inspiring “learning.’ The development of a real learning culture where students can take risk and experimentation in how they provide evidence of their learning. A culture where learning is meaningful. So much more powerful than resourcing, than staffing, than curriculum changes, than paying teachers more, than purchasing expensive AI technology.

The professional dialogue that results from teachers talking about pedagogy, using learner evidence to examines student progress data, should we intervene, should we inspire further is like lighting a fire.

The focus on the quality of teaching, the stressful lesson observations where teachers increase their talk, their detailed lesson planning is about putting out the fire.

Giving authority and trusting your teachers to discuss collectively student progress, creatively and do what matters most to the learners leads to real learning, resulting in real student progress, and learning that is meaningful and will stay with our students just like it did when they learnt to walk and you learnt to drive.

The challenge now is that we have AI being trained to generate realistic human text, to create articles, poetry, stories, news reports and dialogue using just a small amount of input. This requires us more than ever before to ensure that learning environments leads to real learning, resulting in real student progress, and learning that is meaningful.

AI is nowhere near ready to replace human empathy, human understanding and real learning. It is a batch of databases - which still at this stage are riddled with errors and misinformation. Like much of the internet, if we are to use it, then we should develop in our students an inquisitive mind, not to trust and to challenge.

I know that it still thinks that I am the President of Cyprus and that Soelskar still manages Manchester United - these data bases will be updated and trained but in the meantime, our generation of students are being misled.

A company just responded to me when I challenged the errors:

Hi Dr. Tassos Anastasiades,

Thank you for your email! The XXXX AI app is powered by ChatGPT of OpenAI, therefore the answers provided are generated by their database. You'll find here that ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, so it will occasionally produce incorrect answers. We appreciate your continued support and hope you'll continue to send your feedback or questions.

Best regards,

AXXXXX SXXXXX

So why all the hype and fear from educators?

Tassos Anastasiades