Teacher in private school using AI for everything.

[ShakespeareSallo]

As the title says really.

My now teenage child has attended a private school since 11, they are now in Year 10. It has been a great experience for them and worth the money. We aren’t rich by any means but afford it by making cut backs, we haven’t been on holiday for 5 years. VAT has hugely impacted us.

My child now has a teacher for a core subject which they haven’t had before. They bring their book home every week, and it is very obvious that the whole scheme of work and all of the worksheets and homework are AI generated. I am not a dinosaur, and I do use AI myself. However, this level of usage coming from my child’s teacher seems excessive, and I am not sure how much actual teaching is going on? My child has also said all of the PowerPoints used in lessons are obviously AI generated, and even that it has appeared as though the things on the PowerPoints the teacher is seeing for the first time alongside the students?!

Less of an issue, but I’ve also had some suspiciously AI looking and sounding emails from other members of staff in the school.

WIBU to arrange a meeting with the Head of Year to raise these concerns, or is this just the modern era of teaching?

Don’t think that’s true nowadays; think most do have QTS.

Precisely this. Private schools are more interested in subject knowledge, which less of an issue in schools in deprived areas (obviously a minimum is required, but those schools prioritise crowd management…).

How do you know precisely what the teacher meant by their words, just based on whatever your friend’s child said?

But is this impacting learning?

Nor can it answer questions or address misunderstandings in the way that a human can, because it’s a machine and not a human brain.

Where have you got that from? Private schools are almost always more interested in subject knowledge than state schools; almost if not all of the teachers will have good degrees and many postgraduate qualifications.

How would your son in year 11 know what depth of knowledge the teacher had? Is he a child genius who knows more than the teacher? 😂

Oh how clever of you!

I get this impression also…

Behaviour management shouldn’t be a massive issue though; pupils shouldn’t be behaving in the appalling way many of them now are in state schools.

I think the issue of teachers using AI to help with preparing lesson resources is fine- it is a tool, the teacher still has to physically teach the content. If they are a good teacher they will still be a good teacher just without the extra stress of creating innovative resources. Is your child learning? That is what the outcome here needs to focus on.

lessons sometimes change just before depending on how much was covered in the previous lesson, if the teacher felt things were misunderstand and wants to cover them again- they will have an overall plan to get through the syllabus but there is and should be flexibility.

the issue of students using AI to complete homework is entirely different to teachers using it as no-one is testing how much learning has occurred for teachers!!

It's not that hard to know when AI has been used, young people are much more savvy when it comes to these technologies.

…..and they say that was quite some time ago…

Well no, it shouldn’t be, but without a complete overhaul of parenting nationwide, management of SEND, proper treatment of mental health and control of children’s social media use, this is the situation we’re in and some teachers do a really good job of managing it. Others, not so much.

So? Most people use AI for a lot of things at work these days. As long as you’ve reviewed and tweaked the content what is the problem?

The workplace is not a learning experience or an exam.

The teacher will almost certainly be a subject expert. All teachers need a degree in their subject; for a few subjects (like RE or geography), it’s possible to have a degree in a different subject and then do a subject knowledge enhancement course. That latter scenario (the SKC) is not ideal, but I highly doubt that’s the case at a private school, where subject knowledge is prioritised.

I mean it's pretty important for humans to be able to 'think' so deferring to AI is not going to help with 'education' if you believe education is more than a curriculum list.

People go to school to receive an education, students aren't workers

I am a teacher - who uses AI for everything - but I don't work at a private school - and I would be able to send the overview for the lessons in advance not the PowerPoints as they are ready and refined right up until the lesson. AI is only as good as the content you put in. I use it a lot to refine the graphics for my lessons so that they look better. They can't create the lesson or make the lesson content. Though it could suggest what to teach and help write a scheme of work. The schemes of work it creates can be effective but need massive amounts of refining.

Although a private school - I would say there is still a shortage of teachers. Doesn't necessarily matter if it's private or not - there aren't the bodies to fill the rooms. Private schools can pay more but often don't have the funds anyway - so what you're really paying for is the privilege of being in a room with other children who's parents are paying. This especially goes for maths and science but even in other subjects in certain areas - in mine, RE, English and Geography and even music.

No, he/she means actually teaching, ie actually explaining content and assessing learning, as opposed to crowd control.

I never said education should be deferred to AI- I said that Ai can be used to create resources for good teachers to still to do the teaching ???!

That’s not true. Private school teachers need good degrees and many have postgraduate qualifications.

Having used AI to make a resource doesn’t tell you what the teacher’s depth of knowledge is though…. Nor would a Year 11 pupil be well placed to really assess that either!

But that's what is happening if you are using generative AI to create lessons. The reality is, critical thinking skills will be lost overtime with this reliance on AI.

It is easy to spot generative AI lessons and that's all you need to know. Young people aren't going to fooled by that. If the teacher has the depth of knowledge to create their own lesson, they would surely use it.