AI in the classroom: The tasks teachers may soon be able to automate - new Government guidance

• The Government has released its first formal AI guidance for educators
• The Education Secretary says using AI to cut teacher workloads would let them focus on the more important parts of the job
• The new guidance comes with examples of how it can be used for everything from school trips to communicating with parents

England’s teachers are being encouraged to embrace AI in the classroom - harnessing it to help with with both teaching and admin work.

Earlier this month, the Department for Education (DfE) released its first-ever AI guidance for schools and colleges, which set out ways teachers could safely and effectively use AI “to transform the classroom experience for students”. The new guidance comes after more than two in five (43%) teachers in a recent survey rated their AI confidence at just 3 out of 10, the DfE said, with nearly all teachers polled wanting safety guidance and additional training for using AI in the classroom.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said that giving schools the power to use “cutting-edge AI tools” would free teachers up from paperwork, “so they can focus on what parents and pupils need most - inspiring teaching and personalised support”. She continued: “By harnessing AI’s power to cut workloads, we’re revolutionising classrooms and driving high standards everywhere - breaking down barriers to opportunity so every child can achieve and thrive.”

The guidance was published alongside a new package of support and training material, developed especially for educators. It included slideshows with examples showing how they could potentially use AI to help them with all sorts of tasks - as well as reminders that learning still needs to be teacher-led, and that educators using AI will need to verify accuracy and protect pupils’ data.

Here are a few of the classroom tasks teachers may soon be able to use AI for, as highlighted in the new materials:

1. Creating lesson plans

One of the ways AI could potentially help teachers is by crafting structured lessons. By entering a prompt which included what children needed to understand by the end of the lesson, their age, and how much class time was available - plus clarifying information that the lesson needed to include activities and follow England’s National Curriculum - the AI was able to come up with a step-by-step lesson plan.

The example in the support materials was an hour-long lesson about photosynthesis. It began with a 10 minute ‘think, pair, share’ activity, where pupils brainstormed what they thought plants needed to grow. The lesson then moved on to the teacher spending 10 minutes explaining how it worked with a basic diagram and demonstration. This was followed by two interactive activities to help reinforce what they had learned, before the lesson ended with a quickfire quiz and an exit ticket - in this case, every child writing down one fact and one question they still had before they leave.

The AI was even able to craft lists of what the teacher would need for the lesson, as well as changes they could make for pupils with learning needs. But the guidance warned all lesson plans created this way would need to be checked over before they were used to make sure they’d actually work for that specific school or classroom, and edited if need be.

Joined NationalWorld Today yet? Breaking news in your inbox - sign up now.

2. Making content more fun and engaging

Another example of ways teachers could use AI in the classroom was to create more colourful, engaging learning and revision materials. Examples included a rap to help children remember the names of different planets in the solar system; short phonics stories to help very young pupils grasp different sounds; Avengers-themed maths problems for children learning fractions; and a mnemonic to help older pupils remember the noble gases from the periodic table.

But again, the support materials came with a warning: “With all generative AI outputs the content will need checking for accuracy and appropriateness.” Teachers would need to make sure the AI output aligned with what pupils actually needed, it continued, and shouldn’t replace the actual curriculum - such as the detailed phonics scheme schools needed to follow.

3. Writing ‘generic’ letters to parents

Generative AI could also potentially help with all sorts of administrative tasks. Using AI to craft generic letters to parents could give teachers “hours back to focus on personalised parent communications around children’s education progress and wellbeing”, the DfE said.

Examples of how AI could be used for letters from the slides included head lice notifications, and reminders about a school’s nut-free status.

4. Planning school trips

Finally, AI could also potentially be used to create itineraries for school trips. The example included in the teaching materials was a Year 7 history class day trip to Cirencester.

The AI output included a museum visit, a short walk to explore historical landmarks, a picnic lunch, a church visit, an optional extra visit to the nearby Roman amphitheatre, and when and where the coach could pick up pupils to transport them back to school. It was also able to factor in accessibility concerns for a pupil in a wheel chair, selecting a picnic spot and advising the teacher to seek guidance from English Heritage for one of the attractions.

But as always, human oversight would be needed before any actual trip took place, the guidance warned.

If you have an education story to share, we’d love to hear from you. You can now send your stories to us online via YourWorld at www.yourworld.net/submit. It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.