The Welcome article is by Jason McManus Vice Principal
Creating a culture of (human) thinking in a GAI world
The last year has seen the release of what many believe will be one of the biggest disrupters to how we work and learn in recent history. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), like many technologies, has been released ahead of regulative or ethical guard rails and has gone straight to use in many workplaces, universities and schools. While many are finding it a useful time saver, others question its implications in a wide range of areas.
In a school like ours, that strives to create a culture of thinking, where ‘a group’s collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members’1, it begs the question: how do we do prioritise student (human) thinking in order to make it visible, in a GAI world where words that resemble thinking can be mechanised in an instant? How do we avoid deskilling our students (and teachers) when aspects of their thinking processes are outsourced to GAI technology?
We have been working with Educational Consultant Leon Furze who specialises on GAI in education, on a cautious, reasoned approach to policy and practice around GAI in our School and are in the process of consulting with staff on draft policies and procedures for release in Semester 2.
A group of secondary teachers are also focussing in their professional learning inquiry group on developing and trialling the use of GAI in their classes to build a culture of thinking relevant to their teaching disciplines.
As the technology is already in use across all sectors, I asked Microsoft Co-pilot ‘how can a school can create a culture of thinking with the existence of generative artificial intelligence?’ to see what the technology itself offered as a response to this question.
It responded that attempting to create a culture of thinking in a school with the existence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) can be a transformative process and suggested some strategies that schools can consider. Interestingly, it is these transformative opportunities that we have been investigating, as the technology is here, in use in workplaces now, and will likely increase in the future world our students will inhabit. In saying that, we need to also take care not to allow its use to reduce the opportunities our education provides for students to think deeply.
I have included an edited version below of some of these opportunities which align with the work we have been doing to create a set of guidelines for use by staff and students that helps teachers designate what, if any, role GAI could and should have in a given learning task at Tintern Grammar.
- Integrate AI in curriculum: We are looking to integrate AI into the curriculum in appropriate places, teaching students how AI works and its applications to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Promote AI literacy: Promote AI literacy, ensuring students understand the ethical implications, potential biases, and limitations of AI to foster a culture of informed and responsible AI use.
- Use AI as a learning tool: Use as a tool to facilitate personalised learning, provide instant quantitative feedback, and enhance student engagement. However, it’s important to emphasize that AI is a tool for learning, not a replacement for human teachers particularly regarding qualitative feedback.
- Collaborative learning: Foster collaborative projects where AI tools are used to support group work, allowing students to leverage AI for research and analysis.
- Teacher empowerment: Provide teachers with AI tools that can assist with administrative tasks, freeing up time for them to focus on teaching and mentoring students.
- Ethics and responsibility: Teach students about the ethical use of AI, data privacy, and digital citizenship.
- Continuous professional development: Offer ongoing training for educators to stay abreast of the latest AI developments, ethical considerations and pedagogical approaches aligned with our values and philosophy.
- Evaluate and reflect: Regularly assess the impact of AI on the learning environment and make adjustments as needed to ensure it supports a culture of thinking.
Our goal is not to replace human thinking with AI, but to use AI as a tool to enhance and stimulate human thinking. It’s about creating a balance between technology and human intellect. AI can be a powerful tool in education, but it’s the educators and students who will truly drive a culture of thinking in schools by focusing on critical thinking and human-centered values.
The golden rule we will be applying in this brave new world, is that anything we do enables student thinking.
Jason McManus | Vice Principal
