Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

The AI revolution is coming, if it isn’t here already. Experts are warning that we need to dedicate serious time and effort to anticipating the consequences for society, and fixing the glitches in AI if humanity is going to survive it unscathed. The ramifications for education have certainly been discussed, though so far mostly at surface level, regarding how pupils are using ChatGPT to do their homework. A notable exception has been Laura Bates’ (brilliant) book, The New Age of Sexism , which tackles the important issue of howAI has become a tool of sexual harassment that’s helping to foster misogyny among young people. Balancing act There is another area that more people are starting to think about, however, which is whether AI may finally prompt the total redesign of the curriculum that many believe is long overdue. Despite decades of endless policy changes and adjustments that have driven educators to distraction, the actual core of the National Curriculum has barely changed since its introduction in 1988. Once you understand howmuch schools are doing with limited time and resources, the parade of celebrities, entrepreneurs and influencers declaring that this or that thing ‘should be taught in schools’ can be annoying – but they aren’t necessarily wrong. Instilling a life-long love of learning, while giving pupils the skills they need to survive and navigate the world, has always involved a delicate balancing act. Yet followingMichael Gove’s education reforms of the early 2010s – which slashed coursework, placed more weight on examinations and prioritised so-called ‘core academic’ subjects – it’s felt like young people are now expected to memorise and regurgitate fairly arbitrary facts much of the time. The majority us have long had super-computers in our pockets linking us to all the information in the world. While there are some (valid) concerns to be had over our worsening ability to recall information as a result, the bigger worry for me is that only a certain proportion of the information we have access to is of good quality. Information hygiene On paper, AI embodies the totality of human knowledge of a subject as it exists on the internet – which thus means that said knowledge is not neutral . AI has many biases; it’s sexist, ageist, racist and homophobic, just as many human beings are. Crucially, AI doesn’t distinguish between information that’s been voiced or input frequently, versus verifiable facts. This is the new reality young people will need to steer themselves through. The skills that will matter most to their generation won’t be memory and recall, but more the ability to decipher what, from the wealth of content flowing their way each day, is worth remembering – a concept often described as ‘information hygiene’. Information was once scarce, and often frightening. During early human evolution, situational intelligence was crucial for our very survival, leading us to develop a ‘negativity bias’. Nowadays, we’re bombarded with infinite content that competes fiercely for our attention, often by evoking feelings of fear or anxiety. Online interrogation Adapting to this will involve training ourselves to interrogate everything we encounter online: ‘ Is this true? ’ ‘ Can I authenticate this against a trustworthy and transparent source? ’ ‘ Is it important for me to have an opinion about this? ’ ‘ Can I sit with this for a while? ’ ‘ What consequences will sharing this have withinmy online community? ’ This is especially true in light of emerging evidence that young people are developing parasocial relationships with online influencers, on whom they’re increasingly reliant for the majority of their life advice. Scientific literacy skills are more vital than they’ve ever been. Pupils must leave school having fully absorbed the difference between correlation and causation, for example, and internalised critical thinking skills in other areas – perhaps by asking ‘ Who is making money out of this?’ or ‘ How does this person possess expertise in this area? ’ If we’re to avoid creating generations of conspiracy theorists prone to radicalisation and vulnerable to scams, then what becomes paramount is not what they learn, but how they learn... Like it or not, the online future now being shaped by AI will eventually force us to reassess the fundamental aims and values of the National Curriculum... Natasha Devon Natasha Devon is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner on issues relating to education and mental health; to find out more, visit natashadevon.com or follow @_NatashaDevon 19 teachwire.net/secondary S C H O O L O F T H O U G H T