In our 2023 annual reader survey, when we asked you what you’d like more content on this year, you overwhelmingly let us know you’d like more information on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Steven Kolber is an experienced teacher and has been reflecting on his own practice in relation to the widespread usage of AI. In this reader submission, he explores the importance of human knowledge in the face of generative AI and shares some reflection techniques and tools he has to be found useful not only in this area, but also throughout his 12-year teaching career more broadly.
Much educational discourse has circled around generative AI and how it might change the nature of education alongside broader society. But as this discussion has continued to unfold, what has emerged front and centre is the need for a human-centric approach to be taken to education as a whole. As teachers are expected to constantly keep up with the latest technology, there is also a need to consider how all of these new bells and whistles interact and intersect.
If AI can teach our young people anything with absolute surety it’s the importance of humans, and most of all: humans as ethical agents. The focus on any of humanity's great breakthroughs and achievements, as AI surely is one, should be paired with one of its more enduring technologies. Democracy.
Imagine, perhaps, a classroom where language is the focus: a group of students begin to learn that AI has a strong preference towards certain words and phrases. Words like ‘delve’, ‘commendable’, ‘meticulous’ and ‘intricate’ being just some of these common words – but now, students consider these trends and common uses as authors. How might human students correct this silly AI tool that keeps reusing the same phrases?
Well, this could be a good chance for students to collaborate around possible solutions. They might even use AI as an input point for better ideas. This class could then take the next step and learn that some of these words have seen a sharp rise in use among academic publications. Now they might start to consider what this means for the basis of knowledge, or perhaps even the pressure to publish within these spheres. This all sounds like good old-fashioned learning to me, and places the thinking of the students themselves as important above and beyond that of simply using or abusing the tool.
A classroom where technology and AI is placed in its rightful place as a helpmate rather than teacher is a powerful space.
In light of this, I began to think about my own teaching pedagogy, honed over 12 years – as someone who's always chased the newest and the best approaches, I felt it time to bring my thinking into one clear model.
A model of ongoing reflection for teachers
The combination of tools, theories and techniques I’ve assembled could be adopted by teachers across multiple learning settings, year levels and jurisdictions. In short, what is presented here is what is termed within schools a ‘pedagogical model’ but this differs notably from what is common within schools because it is a personal pedagogical model. Not something that is expected for all teachers to adopt, but rather it is a method of ongoing reflection.
Here’s the model:
In terms of how I’ve used this model in my own practice, ‘accessible’ is formed from instructional video, assistive technology and generative AI. Instructional video means either creating or curating my own teaching and learning content that students can access at any time, allowing students to access their learning artifacts, in a way that is accessible and inclusive of students with diverse learning needs. Assistive technologies are those tools that allow students to engage with content across a variety of mediums. The tools I have used are DragonSpeak Naturally to assist students with productive language and ClaroRead to assist students with receptive language. By combining these 2 tools alongside a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach (Rossi, 2023) and differentiation, students can have multiple entry points and possible outputs for their learning.
‘Relevant’ is made up of YouTube and TikTok. These are 2 tools I have used to bring the outside world into the classroom. The way that teachers use YouTube in their classroom is still being discussed (Fyfield et al., 2020), but there is much promise here. Similarly, TikTok, despite all of the concerns around its use, can provide a range of short, pithy and timely clips that teachers could use to not only engage their students, but also bridge the students’ world and the world of school. Emailing a TikTok to yourself removes it from the ecosystem and means that students can engage with the content itself without the dopamine-sapping tendencies that the application brings with it.
‘Efficient’ is shaped up through flipped learning, retrieval practice and method of loci. Efficiency is the goal of many teachers and school systems. To maintain efficiency, I leverage the instructional video content outlined previously within a flipped learning approach, as a means to free up the time within classes to be most active and dare we say ‘human’? Retrieval practice combines best practice understandings of memory and the brain sciences to get students actively recalling content taught within their daily practice. By bringing in the method of loci we can tap into long held understandings of memory to get students to map this knowledge gained to places, people and things – thereby making things all the more memorable as a result.
Combined, these efficient tools could assist teachers to meet the ever-increasing expectations placed upon them to produce knowledgeable students while also freeing up space and time for students to be the ones actively doing the thinking within classrooms.
A democratic approach
When taken as a whole, these techniques and tools could allow for democratic education to be a possibility, but it doesn’t by itself ensure it. So, I have found adding democratic teaching and an exploration of the Socratic Circles approach, alongside a broader Socratic approach to teaching, to be beneficial. As I outlined in a previous article for Teacher (Kolber, 2022b), Socratic circles are a classroom approach where students engage with one another through discussion within 2 concentric circles, where the teacher guides students to original and novel conclusions (Kolber, 2022a). This method works best within a broader Socratic questioning approach (Kolber, 2024) where the teacher focuses on gaining insights into their students' thinking and building knowledge from there. This is especially important in our era of radicalisation where online processes can lead students to quite socially challenging opinions and belief systems (Wescott & Roberts, 2024).
Whilst not a complete system, the approaches outlined here could provide some real possibilities for teachers to consider more broadly democratic approaches within their teaching. It also outlines an approach that has been developed within and is actively geared to address emerging world issues. It means looking at the world as it is, at the students we actually teach today, and seeks to meet them halfway there, moving towards a shared future we might all enjoy.
References
Fyfield, M., Henderson, M., & Phillips, M. (2020). Navigating four billion videos: teacher search strategies and the YouTube algorithm. Learning, Media and Technology, 46(1), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1781890
Kolber, J. (2022). Democracy Starts in the Classroom. In: Heggart, K., Kolber, S. (eds) Empowering Teachers and Democratising Schooling. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4464-2_8
Kolber, S. (2022, May 30). Classroom teaching techniques – Socratic Circles. Teacher magazine. https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/classroom-teaching-techniques-socratic-circles
Kolber, S. (2024). In pursuit of a Socratic, democratic classroom: Combining Modern Technologies with Ancient Teaching Techniques. The Social Educator. https://www.academia.edu/114049841/In_pursuit_of_a_Socratic_democratic_classroom_Combining_Modern_Technologies_with_Ancient_Teaching_Techniques?uc-sb-sw=103454526
Rossi, V. (2023). Inclusive Learning Design in Higher Education. A Practical Guide to Creating Equitable Learning Experiences. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Inclusive-Learning-Design-in-Higher-Education-A-Practical-Guide-to-Creating-Equitable-Learning-Experiences/Rossi/p/book/9781032136189
Wescott, S. & Roberts, S. (2024, March 4). Andrew Tate’s toxic trap and how it harms girls and women. AARE. https://blog.aare.edu.au/andrew-tates-toxic-trap-and-how-it-harms-girls-and-women/
Further reading
Kolber, S. (2024). Ancient methods & modern memes: using Socratic circles and TikTok within classes to democratise your teaching. Curriculum Perspectives, 1-12. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41297-024-00247-w
As a classroom teacher, consider the model for ongoing reflection posed by Steven Kolber in this article. What is your model?
Discuss your model with a colleague – are there many similarities or differences?
