"We do have to be creative in terms of how we teach in future - including the use of AI and new technologies" - First Minister

I recently read a report in the Wales Online about a Senedd scrutiny committee meeting attended by the First Minster, Eluned Morgan. Amongst many questions to the First Minister about transport and health, was a question raised to her by the Plaid Cymru Senedd member, Cefin Campbell, about the government's failure to meet their teacher recruitment targets. The target in the last academic year "was to train 1056 secondary school teachers. He said only 355 passed teaching qualification." Mr Campbell went on to say that it was "worrying" that "only two Welsh-medium physics teachers recruited last year, only one biology teacher and no chemistry teachers." This must be concerning for the Welsh Government, especially when they have a strategy to get one million Welsh language speakers by 2050. What surprised me was the answer given by the First Minister to the question from Mr. Campbell. This is what she said.

“Trying to attract new teachers into the profession is a global issue. We do have to be creative in terms of how we teach in future - including the use of AI and new technologies.” She added: “We put a lot of grants on the table and we’ll keep doing those things but we’re up against a global challenge.”

Let me see if I've got this straight about what the First Minister was saying. Firstly, she is saying that there is a "global issue / global challenge" with teacher recruitment, not just an issue in Wales. From what I can find out, this appears to be true. However, some could argue that teacher recruitment could be more problematic here in Wales as there would be only a small percentage of teachers in the STEM subjects for example, who can also teach through the medium of Welsh. Eluned Parrott, head of Wales at the Institute of Physics, highlighted this issue thus, "Welsh-speaking, physics-trained teachers as like unicorns." 

According to an Engineering UK survey about a third of schools in England have a vacancy in a STEM related department. The impact of these vacancies are that in 81% of these schools learners are taught by non-specialist teachers and 71% reporting that workload has increased. If these are the figures in England, then it is my guess that the figures are similar, if not a little worse, here in Wales. 

Secondly, let's look at that statement about teaching, "We do have to be creative in terms of how we teach in future - including the use of AI and new technologies." I think that is pretty clear then, that the First Minister believes that current teaching practices will have to change and that AI technologies will be playing a big part in that change. If you are a teacher reading this, do you feel a little uncomfortable with this seemingly as a solution to the problem of teacher recruitment? Maybe if the government could address the low pay, high workload, and low status which are undermining teacher recruitment and retention then maybe this would go some way to encourage more people to join the profession. But, is that going to happen? I doubt it, the obvious solution therefore, in the mind of the government, is to throw digital technology solution at those problems. But what is it that generative AI can do to help to solve this teacher vacancies issue? If you look at current Welsh and UK Government documents on AI in education they make it clear that AI is not going to replace teachers. In the UK Government document, under the heading, "Will teachers be replaced by AI?", we read:

"Absolutely not. Teachers are irreplaceable, and AI could never be a substitute for teachers' professional judgement and the personal relationships they have with their students.
We're developing AI tools specifically to support teachers, not to replace the unique role they play in education. These tools are designed to handle repetitive tasks that currently take teachers’ energy away from face to face classroom interactions.
Good teachers are key to raising standards in education. Using AI to reduce workload could also help address the recruitment and retention challenges in teaching - helping to restore teaching as an attractive profession. These tools have the potential to make a difference to the every day lives of teachers, and will help them focus on what matters, teaching."

Phew, that's good to know. However, I'm sure there should be a big caveat here, possibly the words, "at the moment" should be added. Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but if a big tech company said that their new AI product was a good as a teacher, then I'm pretty sure this response would change considerably. Have a look at Alpha School in the US as an example  😬

Let's look at what the Welsh Government say about teachers and AI?

"Used responsibly, generative AI offers opportunities and benefits that may enhance the role of practitioners in supporting their learners. We are clear, however, that it cannot replace the fundamental role of practitioners in supporting and inspiring learners to learn and reach their potential....
When used responsibly, safely and purposefully, generative AI tools have the potential to reduce workload and to support with a variety of tasks such as:

• supporting the development of content for use in learning
• assisting with some routine administrative functions
• helping provide more personalised learning experiences
• supporting lesson planning, marking, feedback and reporting
• providing contexts to support development of critical thinking skills
• supporting school-level curriculum and assessment design"

Again, that's good to know that according to the Welsh Government, AI "cannot replace the fundamental role of practitioners," however, note my previous caveat 😉 So, the First Minister is saying that an AI tool is not going replace the role of a teacher. Now, if we look back to what the possible problems are around teacher recruitment, then low pay, high workload, and low status appear to be contributing factors. AI cannot do anything about improving teachers' pay, nor can it address the low status of the teaching profession, therefore it can only possibly address one aspect and that is teacher workload. You can't help but notice that addressing workload comes out loud and clear from the two government quotes above. However, this belief that AI will address teacher workload, is certainly debatable, at best it has the potential to help teacher workload, at worst it could actually increase workload. As I critically outlined in my recent post, "AI - reducing workload and saving time?", the introduction of digital technologies has rarely, if ever, resulted in a reduced workload for people. New technology just tends to shift norms and raise expectations. I think Microsoft 365 or Google for Education are good, recent examples of where teachers have over the last eight years or so, experienced the shifting of norms and the raising of expectations. What was once the 'norm' of only being able to access your digital files within your school, has now been shifted to being easily accessible anywhere and at anytime. However that now comes with the expectation that we can always access our digital files and that we are always available to be contacted. Some teachers might see that as a positive thing, other teachers, not so, especially when it comes to work-life balance. The separation of what was once your work life and your homes life can blur. In a similar way, generative AI may save a teacher time on a particular task, but all that often means is that you could end up doing more work related tasks because you have completed things more quickly. Workload doesn't necessarily decrease teacher workload but can arguably increase it. It's going to be interesting to revisit this post in the future to see if teachers believe that AI or any other digital technology has solved this workload problem. I would be extremely surprised if it does.