{"id":12330,"date":"2024-06-04T08:37:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T07:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=12330"},"modified":"2025-05-29T19:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T18:34:42","slug":"should-initial-teacher-training-include-how-to-use-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2024\/06\/should-initial-teacher-training-include-how-to-use-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Initial teacher training include how to use AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

By James Kieft, Group learning and development manager, Active Learning <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the launch of Chat GPT Artificial Intelligence (AI) has remained one of the most discussed topics within education. Just at my social media feeds and it seems like every other post mentions AI.  There is also a plethora of Teaching focused tools that are being launched that utilise AI in some way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post, I am going to consider if Initial Teacher training would benefit from including guidance on how to use Artificial Intelligence effectively to help teachers new to the profession better deal with the challenge of planning learning and creating resources in the first few years of teaching.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article in FE (Further Education) week in March 2023 highlighted the high turnover of College teachers with a quarter leaving after the first year and almost half leaving after three years. This is partly linked to workload and the time it takes to develop resources, plan lessons, mark assignments and provide feedback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking back to when I started teaching weekends and evenings were regularly taken up with either the planning of lessons, preparation of teaching material or the marking of students work. That is without taking into consideration how tiring it is adapting to doing something new and learning how to work with the students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my current role I lead on the development teachers across a group of Further Education College\u2019s in the Southeast of England. Part of my role involves working with and supporting teachers who are new to the organisation. As is common with the sector 40% of those who join are new to teaching typically joining from industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just recently I have started delivering on our equivalent to the level 3 Award in Education and training. A course I have planned with a focus on developing skills and practical approaches they can use in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within that course I have embedded opportunities where they could utilise AI to assist them in carryout certain tasks. However, I am conscious that when developing their craft as a teacher it is important that they understand processes and approaches such sequencing and chunking information and why to use them. Once they have grasped this, I then highlight how they could be used AI appropriately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI can be their co-collaborator who helps with ideas generation, create draft resources or activities which they then refine meaning that they never have to start with a blank document, help them to save time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to talking about how AI can help them save time, we focused on the importance of a well-crafted prompt. Going through what sort of information was needed to generate the best results. We then covered the importance of verifying the information generated to make sure that it is a correct and contains all the relevant information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The areas covered in the course include how AI can be used for: <\/p>\n\n\n\n