Technology & Innovation - Issue 11

consideration for differing levels of ability or need. We don’t do it in our lessons, so why is it seen as appropriate for teacher training? Variations in needs Unfortunately, we don’t always practice what we preach, and approaches to professional development don’t always draw on and reflect our collective knowledge base around the fundamentals of learning. Take, for instance, a session on questioning. It could be argued that this is a universal skill that every education professional ought to develop further, but at the same time, there are numerous complexities involved, different layers to questions and types of questioning. A teacher’s prior experience, abilities, confidence around implementation and subject specialismwill all factor into their specific training needs. Whilst we may all need to develop aspects of questioning, there will likely be variations in those needs. Facilitation, not revolution By utilising ChatGPT, we can create bespoke learning pathways in real time. Teachers can input their own existing experience levels, specific needs, and desired outcomes, whereupon ChatGPT can generate tailored development plans or learning pathways that include a structured plan of action, wider reading recommendations and specific strategies (often based on up-to-date research-based pedagogy), along withmodelled examples. Admittedly, not all the resulting suggestions may be of practical use, but ChatGPT can at least consistently create that often elusive starting point for professional development. It can prevent the dreaded temptation to procrastinate because you simply don’t knowwhere to begin. It can provide a starting framework, within which you can then develop and start to evolve your professional development. Beyond those valuable starting points and guiding frameworks for professional development, ChatGPT can also be used as a research tool, saving teachers precious time by summarising articles, chapters or even whole books prior to reading them, to help you determine their relevance (or otherwise) to your particular avenue of research. Moreover, it can generate recommended reading lists based on specific areas of need. ChatGPT can also help you develop initial hypotheses and enquiry questions, along with appropriate methodologies, to help begin the process. In the panel on the right you’ll find five practical uses of ChatGPT, along with some suggested command prompts, which you can use to further explore the potential AI has to support teacher workload. Ultimately, we know that it’s the quality of teaching that makes the biggest difference to children’s learning, and to school improvement as a whole – for which a sustained and carefully considered professional development plan is essential. So, will AI revolutionise education, as the hype cycle seems to insist?We’re yet to find out for sure, but there’s perhaps another, perhaps more important question that we should be asking: can AI make teachers’ lives easier by assisting with key elements of teacher practice? And the answer to that question is yes. Absolutely. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Geoff Baker is a Professor of Education and Craig Lomas a Senior Lecturer in Education, both at the University of Bolton, and both former senior secondary school leaders ATYOUR SERVICE Five practical tasks that ChatGPT can perform, along with some example command prompts... 1 LESSON PREPARATION ANDADMINISTRATION You can create more time for yourself by enlisting the help of ChatGPT for tasks such as lesson plans, creating resources, marking work and analysing data. Example prompt: Plan a 60 minute lesson on glaciation for a Year 7 mixed ability class 2 THE GENERATION OF SPECIFIC LEARNING PATHWAYS Counter the tendency towards ‘one size fits all’ teacher training by focusing your professional development on specific areas of need. Example prompt: I am an ECT struggling with management of low level behavioural issues. Can you suggest some strategies to move forward? 3 STREAMLINING RESEARCH Use ChatGPT to summarise articles before reading them, so that you can acquire better insights into whether or not they’re relevant to the field you’re researching. Example prompt: Summarise Luckin, Rose (2020) ‘AI in education will help us understand how we think’ 4 HELPINGYOU READ MOREWIDELY ChatGPT can be used to recommend wider reading around a particular area of need, or just broad topics that you happen to be interested in. Example prompt: Suggest key texts on AI and education 5 CRITIQUINGYOUR TEACHING Another possible use for ChatGPT is to gauge the likely effectiveness of your lesson planning; you can then use its findings to help you better reflect on your practice. Example prompt: I plan to do a group task with a mixed ability Year 8 class.What might the limitations of this approach be? 61 T E C H I N A C T I O N teachwire.net