Artificial intelligence

'In embracing EdChat, we chose responsiveness over rigidity, learning over waiting, and trust over control.’ In his latest column, Professor Martin Westwell – Chief Executive of the South Australian Department for Education – shares the thinking behind a generative AI chatbot that has been custom-built for teaching and learning, and its initial impact.

Alongside the exciting opportunities for AI to support teaching and learning, there are challenges and risks. In this special podcast Teacher editor Jo Earp talks to Dr Katie Richardson, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research.

‘By focusing on future-orientated education, we can find innovative solutions to the megatrends our planet faces.’ In his first Teacher column for 2025, OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher shares finding from the latest Trends Shaping Education report, and the implications for teachers, school leaders, students and policymakers.

In our latest reader submission Rebecca J Collie, Andrew J Martin and Dragan Gasevic share an update from their work into teachers’ use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. They discuss the findings of a new Australian study, and the implications for schools.

In his first Teacher column for 2025, Professor Geoff Masters AO poses these questions: will schooling be different for children born this year, and if so, how? He then offers 3 suggestions for how learning at school might evolve by 2040.

With the advent of ChatGPT and the emergence of similar generative AI tools, the teaching and learning landscape is facing a major challenge as it considers how schools might respond to generative AI. To guide schools with their investigation and implementation of generative AI, the Australian Government released the ‘Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Schools’ to guide the responsible and ethical use of generative AI tools.

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.

As education departments begin to integrate generative artificial intelligence into teaching and learning in schools, Rebecca Collie and Andrew Martin share findings from their research into how teachers value and integrate generative AI in their practice, and the role of school leaders in supporting or thwarting this.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an increasingly popular and useful tool for teachers and students alike. But what do our copyright laws say about using AI to generate new, or alter existing, work? Teacher spoke to Delia Browne, National Copyright Director at the National Copyright Unit, to find out more about the legal obligations of using AI in schools.

We know teachers are interested in how they could incorporate the use of generative AI to support them with managing their workload in general. In this edition of Teacher’s Bookshelf, we share an exclusive extract from Leon Furze’s new book Practical AI Strategies: Engaging with Generative AI in Education which focuses on ways to use generative AI to assist with lesson planning.