Appreciating your distinction-making. The German concept of “Bildung” (character development or growth) adds another dimension to the potential influences of the teacher/guide/‘grower’. I think that character is best taught by example (the character of the teacher or guide themselves). Character is a whole discussion, I know. 😂
I think good teachers are about a lot more than transmission. I don't know if ChatGPT can do this, but a good teacher will tailor his or her material and explanations to suit the class or, where necessary, individual children. Years ago systems were developed that automated or semi-automated that process and they still needed a teacher to make them work, and weren't very good, as far as I know, at doing that other thing that good teachers do: inspire kids to learn. You never read articles entitled "The algorithm that inspired me to become an artist" do you? I rest my case!
Wonderful article! And thanks for the nod to Montessori. As a Montessori-trained educator, I wanted to say that we actually DO transmit information (especially at the elementary level, where I am trained)...but see our role as in relationship with the child and the environment, like a triad of collaborators, rather than a hierarchy. Maria Montessori understood that children are shaped by their environments, and sought to create a prepared environment for children. The environment is more than the room and the materials and the furniture placement. The environment also includes the trained guide, who learns when to observe and hold back, when to ask questions, and when to intervene. The original idea was that the guide is the first point of contact for knowledge transfer, but that the knowledge transfer happens in the prepared environment... through books, materials, visual aids, and experiments, to name a few. It will be interesting to observe the influence of AI in Montessori environments. I suspect that what will happen is that traditional environments will become more Montessori-like in structural design, due to the ability to more easily customize a traditional classroom without putting teachers through an intensive training program that teaches them how to create and facilitate environments that embrace the nuanced yet compatible duality of freedom and responsibility.
Wonderful article! Thank you! My perspective is that society & especially the education establishment has treated education as both a scarcity where only some will succeed & thereby qualify for more opportunities, & a commodity, a mass produced product that is free. We accept failure of society’s most vulnerable & view schools as a sorting mechanism. Of course there is always a limited supply of money & time so teachers, schools, districts, and taxpayers are continuously engaged in zero-sum wars. AI has the potential to give all learners access to unlimited resources. But will it? I think the catch is in how we deploy it & that is a lot harder than it sounds.
'Teaching-for-transmission has to change in the rapidly evolving era of AI.'
I believe AI will probably (and probably should) replace the filling-of-the-pail-style teaching. Best case: AI frees up bandwidth that has been bogged down with transmission to make room for the good stuff.
Good teaching has never been about content. It is about human-to-human relationships and human-and-NATURE relationships (hence my Learning by Nature Substack). It’s about fostering community and supporting students to look critically and kindly, develop informed opinions, contribute to civil society and community, and — hopefully (this is where my bias really creeps in) — contribute to a more compassionate world supporting both human and other-than-human life and our planet.
Appreciating your distinction-making. The German concept of “Bildung” (character development or growth) adds another dimension to the potential influences of the teacher/guide/‘grower’. I think that character is best taught by example (the character of the teacher or guide themselves). Character is a whole discussion, I know. 😂
Totally agree with you on how teaching has to change in the ChatGPT era. Here’s my take on it: https://open.substack.com/pub/jenniferbrowdyphd/p/how-would-einstein-have-used-chatgpt?r=77vfa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I think good teachers are about a lot more than transmission. I don't know if ChatGPT can do this, but a good teacher will tailor his or her material and explanations to suit the class or, where necessary, individual children. Years ago systems were developed that automated or semi-automated that process and they still needed a teacher to make them work, and weren't very good, as far as I know, at doing that other thing that good teachers do: inspire kids to learn. You never read articles entitled "The algorithm that inspired me to become an artist" do you? I rest my case!
Wonderful article! And thanks for the nod to Montessori. As a Montessori-trained educator, I wanted to say that we actually DO transmit information (especially at the elementary level, where I am trained)...but see our role as in relationship with the child and the environment, like a triad of collaborators, rather than a hierarchy. Maria Montessori understood that children are shaped by their environments, and sought to create a prepared environment for children. The environment is more than the room and the materials and the furniture placement. The environment also includes the trained guide, who learns when to observe and hold back, when to ask questions, and when to intervene. The original idea was that the guide is the first point of contact for knowledge transfer, but that the knowledge transfer happens in the prepared environment... through books, materials, visual aids, and experiments, to name a few. It will be interesting to observe the influence of AI in Montessori environments. I suspect that what will happen is that traditional environments will become more Montessori-like in structural design, due to the ability to more easily customize a traditional classroom without putting teachers through an intensive training program that teaches them how to create and facilitate environments that embrace the nuanced yet compatible duality of freedom and responsibility.
Wonderful article! Thank you! My perspective is that society & especially the education establishment has treated education as both a scarcity where only some will succeed & thereby qualify for more opportunities, & a commodity, a mass produced product that is free. We accept failure of society’s most vulnerable & view schools as a sorting mechanism. Of course there is always a limited supply of money & time so teachers, schools, districts, and taxpayers are continuously engaged in zero-sum wars. AI has the potential to give all learners access to unlimited resources. But will it? I think the catch is in how we deploy it & that is a lot harder than it sounds.
Thank you. You just threw down the gauntlet.
'Teaching-for-transmission has to change in the rapidly evolving era of AI.'
I believe AI will probably (and probably should) replace the filling-of-the-pail-style teaching. Best case: AI frees up bandwidth that has been bogged down with transmission to make room for the good stuff.
Good teaching has never been about content. It is about human-to-human relationships and human-and-NATURE relationships (hence my Learning by Nature Substack). It’s about fostering community and supporting students to look critically and kindly, develop informed opinions, contribute to civil society and community, and — hopefully (this is where my bias really creeps in) — contribute to a more compassionate world supporting both human and other-than-human life and our planet.
Can AI do that?
Great blog! I agree wholeheartedly