All 3 entries tagged Planning

Insights from a faculty session to Integrate AI in teaching practice

This blog is in two parts and was written by Dr. Neha Gupta and Dr. Susanne Beck, Assistant Professors, ISMA Group, Warwick Business School.

Part 1: Planning to deliver a faculty session to integrate AI into teaching practice (Date: 19th April 2024)

This blog share ideas under consideration in preparation to lead a faculty session about integrating AI in Teaching and Learning practices in various forms in a Higher Education setting. The session will be one of the parallel breakout sessions during the annual event at Warwick Business School, the Teaching and Learning Symposium 2023-24, where faculty from all groups (i.e. various disciplines) engage in peer dialogues, discussions, and activities around how the learning and teaching needs in the higher education landscape are evolving. The broad aims of the session are to inspire discussions and ideas about how to use Generative AI (GenAI) and emerging technologies to foster relevant skills enhancing students' employability.

The leading faculty (co-authors of this blog) plan to use a pool of resources from the WIHEA AI Learning Circle, JISC and a Harvard AI pedagogy project to stimulate discussion on the use of AI practices across higher education. A demo of hands-on examples and of AI Tools and prompts used by colleagues from WBS and beyond, such as Ethan Mollick, will help the attendees see how practically they can engage with AI, for example in setting up assessment tasks with the use of ChatGPT. A notable aspect of the session will be the demonstration of AI tools. For example, CODY AI, a web-based AI tool capable of generating bots to address student queries efficiently by using LLM will be demonstrated using the existing knowledge base from the student handbook to answer dissertation related queries. This demonstration will exemplify how AI can streamline administrative tasks, such as responding to common student inquiries, thereby optimising staff resources and minimising response times.

As the job market evolves, students must be equipped with both domain-specific knowledge and technological proficiency. Integrating AI into teaching not only prepares students for future careers but also empowers them to engage with and leverage technology responsibly. The AI technology is out there and students are going to be using AI tools in their future work places. During their job interviews they will be asked about these tools and about their opinion on these tools. As educators, it is our responsibility to provide students with opportunities to experiment with these tools during their learning journey and allow them to form their own experiences and opinions. Perhaps, educators should recognise that they should have an open mind to experiment with emerging AI tools that offer immense potential in enhancing teaching and assessment practices. Yet, its implementation must be guided by ethical considerations and a commitment to fostering critical thinking skills among students.

Part 2: Insights from faculty session to Integrate AI in teaching practice (Date: 25th April 2024)

This blog share insights from the delivery of faculty session at WBS teaching and learning symposium (an account of which is mentioned in the blog above). The potential of AI tools revolutionising the student supporting task with the use of Cody AI for answering queries sparked discussions amongst colleagues and on its implementation across various educational contexts. For example colleagues were concerned about:

1. Copyrighted information shared on public domains unless such tools are contractually brought into the university ecosystem where such challenges can be managed through a more formal implementation of such AI tools in a university setting.
2. Hallucinations or information made-up by AI tools given the underlying LLM layers. In the demonstrated case of Cody AI bot, however, the answers the Bot gives is primarily based on the knowledge base provided by the user.

Though colleagues had a consensus that committing to innovation and the integration of such AI tools into teaching practices holds the promise of both, creating more efficient handling of student queries as well as enhancing their learning experiences in higher education.

The break out session further delved into using AI for assessments. Hands-on examples of prompts and outcomes where shared within the session, exploring benefits for both educators and students. For educators, GenAI tools can be used to develop creative assignments more efficiently, that require students to critically engage with AI generated content. For instance, instead of preparing a recap-exercise at the beginning of a class, asking students what they remember, teachers can ask students to critically review a text about a given topic and identify (purposefully included) false claims, and share their thoughts with their neighbours. Besides subject knowledge, this exercise sensitises students that even text that might sound good, may be factually wrong. Both the text as well as the instructions can be generated by ChatGPT in an instant, making it easily replicable and customisable for educators (see another example, asking students to write a critical essay, here).

For students, such assignments can help them develop skills such as critical thinking. But through the use of GenAI they may also be empowered to leverage individualised learning opportunities and stimulate their curiosity. For example, in his recent book, Ethan Mollick showcases a potential methodology to encourage students to experiment with tasks they have no experience in. For his entrepreneurship class, he asks students to take the development of a business idea a step further and come up with a website or even develop an app for their business – especially when they have no experience with coding. This opens a new space for students to experiment and become creative, another skill enhancing their future employability.

For students to thrive through the use of GenAI in the classroom, however, the discussions in the session emphasised two important boundary conditions: First, students need to be given the space to experiment with using AI, as well as other emerging technologies. Providing them with space includes aspects such as rewarding ambitious ideas rather than penalising if they fail in persuasion. Second, a responsible usage of AI needs to find its place in the students’ curriculum. Teachers cannot expect students to be fully knowledgeable about the most recent capabilities and risks related to such a dynamic technology. Schools and educators need to provide them with the necessary training.

At the end of the breakout session, the attending faculty were invited to join a discussion, imagining themselves a) in the student’s role and share What could be students concerns when receiving an assignment that asks you to use AI? What steps an educator takes to address these concerns?; or b) in the teacher’s role, thinking about What could be your concerns when designing an assignment that asks students to use AI? What would they (teachers) need to address their concerns? The discussion generated below key takeaways that underscored the importance of ethical AI integration, ongoing teacher professional development in AI literacy, and the need for a balance between technological advancement and human-centric pedagogy:

1. Invest time to train ourselves first then further share AI related knowledge with our students.
2. Avoid falling into the AI trap – i.e. students still need step by step guidance in terms of what is expected from them in their assessment task with minimum ambiguity in the instructions.
3. Incorporate AI as a step towards innovation by evolving our teaching practices by going beyond the AI tool and being valuable as a knowledge expert (both in setting up assessments and teaching content) (see also Mollick & Mollick, 2024).
4. Teaching and learning tasks should be aligned to learning outcomes and not incorporate AI just for the sake of it or for perceived pressure. AI and emerging technologies should be considered powerful means to achieve learning outcomes more effectively.

Feel free to reach out to Dr. Neha Gupta neha.gupta@wbs.ac.uk for more details about the session.

Abigail Ball : 29 Apr 2024 09:00 |  Tags: AI Assessment Neha Gupta Pedagogy Planning Reflections Susanne Beck Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Reflections on planning – Phoebe Thompson

My understanding of the principles of effective planning has developed because at the start of my placement I was extremely naïve as didn’t think planning would be hard. I assumed I could write a few notes on the lesson plan and the pupils would have a deep understanding of the learning. I believed because my classroom teacher didn’t have formal plans that I could do the same. I found that effective planning is a difficult skill and for a lesson to have purpose it must have certain aspects. Ashcraft (2014) made clear that to be an effective teacher you must have effective lesson plans. For example, my first lesson plan lacked substance and I found myself getting stressed when teaching. The stress from a lack of detailed planning didn’t make me an effective teacher as I started to panic that the learning wasn’t clear. However, it has been argued that detailed daily lesson planning is a ‘box-ticking’ activity and adds to the teacher’s workload (Teacher Workload Review Group, 2016). Yet, I would argue that this is regarding experienced teachers.

My planning has been a journey. At the beginning of the placement, I put more emphasis on the activity than the learning. This became evident at the end of the lesson when I asked the class questions about the learning, and they couldn’t answer. I swiftly changed this and put more effort in making sure my lesson objective was clear to the class and that the activities reflected the lesson objectives.

I was very fortunate to have a supportive class teacher who encouraged me to take risks when teaching. Hattie (2012) argues that the most effective planning is when teachers support each other and discuss what is the most important to teach and the impact of their teaching on their pupils. In our shared PPA time the class teacher would suggest ways that I could adapt my teaching for all needs in the class. However, I am aware that this might not be the case at every placement. For example, Mutton et al (2011) mentions that it can be a struggle for student teachers to teach other teachers classes. Yet, in the future, I would like to work with my class teacher or mentor to plan low threshold, high ceiling planning so all needs are met.

Throughout my placement I struggled with my workload as mentioned previously I quickly understood the need to plan thought provoking lessons where all pupils learning flourished. I was encouraged to use the schemes that the school subscribed to and the class teacher’s previous resources. I found that the schemes were extremely helpful, but I had to use them as a guide because they were generic and I had to fit them to my class due to the different needs of the pupils. However, I did find some pressure to use the class teacher’s resources in certain lessons. In the future, I want to be confident enough to use my own creativity to make the resources and use the class teacher’s as a guide like I did with the scheme.

References

Ashcraft, N. (2014) Lesson Planning. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press.

Hattie J (2012) Visible Learning for Teachers, Maximising Impact on Learning. Routledge, pages 67-74.

Mutton, T., Hagger, H. and Burn, K. (2011) “Learning to plan, planning to learn: The developing expertise of beginning teachers,” Teachers and Teaching, 17(4), pp. 399–416. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.580516.

Teacher Workload Review Group (2016) Eliminating unnecessary workload around planning and teaching resources Report of the Independent. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/511257/Eliminating-unnecessary-workload-around-planning-and-teaching-resources.pdf (Accessed: 20 December 2022).

Abigail Ball : 09 May 2023 09:00 |  Tags: Phoebe Thompson Planning Reflections Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Short, medium and long term plans – Danielle

Within a topic that you are teaching this year, present a selection of short, medium and long-term plans. Demonstrate within this topic what progress is achieved by three different types of learners in your class. You should show what actions you took to facilitate this progress by including evidence.

Pupil A: High Achiever

Pupil A is studying Triple Science and is predicted to achieve a Grade 7. However, initial track-point data gathered from summative assessments (TS6) implied that he was working at a Grade 5. Upon conducting an end-of topic test, as outlined in my medium-term plan, it was found that the student had regressed in their learning. Using questioning as a form of formative assessment (TS6), I identified that Pupil A’s grade was not representative of his subject knowledge; rather, it resulted from not being able to identify what was required from an exam question.

Within the next lesson, rather than starting a new topic, I set the class a research task and worked with small groups to build confidence and model exam technique. Following this lesson, Pupil A was provided with the opportunity to re-sit his test. According to a principle outlined by Willows, allowing a re-test emphasises that the teacher’s main goal is to help the student learn (Willows 2012). It also helps to build self-confidence and highlights the usefulness of feedback (ibid.). Upon marking the second test it was found that Pupil A had made good progress in comparison to both track-points and moved from a Grade 4 to a Grade 5+ (TS2). Throughout the next scheme of work, the student implemented some of the revision tips and highlighted his notes.

Pupil B: Middle Achiever

Pupil B is also studying Triple Science but is predicted to achieve a Grade 5-. Initial track-point data gathered from summative assessments (TS6) implied that she was currently working at this grade. Within my lessons and the scheme of work, I provided ‘stretch-and-challenge’ tasks to furthering Pupil B’s understanding of the topic. As some of these tasks related to the course content that was only relevant for Triple Science students(AQA 2018), this shows that I have secure knowledge of the relevant curriculum areas (TS3). Moreover, as the assessment data showed that Pupil B progressed past her target, this shows that I can set goals which stretch-and-challenge pupils (TS1).

Pupil C: Low Achiever with ADHD

Pupil C is studying Combined Science but will be sitting the Foundation Tier GCSE. As this student had less content to learn in comparison to Pupil A, I had to adapt my long and medium-term plans to suit his needs (TS5). Furthermore, since Pupil C has ADHD, I liaised with the SEND department to become aware of the factors which could inhibit his learning (TS5). To help Pupil C learn effectively, I implemented a range of strategies within each lesson (TS5). For example, I used task management boards to break information down into small ‘chunks’ (Blotnicky-Gallant et al. 2014); this helped Pupil C to focus on his work. Additionally, this strategy helped the student to see the progress that he was making as he could remove a task once it had been completed. Overall, Pupil C progressed from a Grade G1+ to a Grade G2+; this shows that I am able to differentiate effectively (TS5). However, using differentiation consistently and efficaciously, is something which I need to develop further.

References:

AQA, 2018. GCSE Science Specifications. Available at: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/gcse [Accessed May 18, 2018].

Blotnicky-Gallant, P. et al., 2014. Nova Scotia Teachers’ ADHD Knowledge, Beliefs, and Classroom Management Practices. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 30(1), pp.3–21. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573514542225.

Willows, D., 2012. Effective Data Management for Schools, John Catt Educational Limited. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=28qv9vgvhZMC.

Abigail Ball : 03 Dec 2018 10:43 |  Tags: Planning |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem