https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-education-une...
Solomon, a tenth grader at the International School of Paris (ISP), uses AI on a regular basis. “Brainstorming and research, that’s what I mainly use it for,” he says. “I think it is going to be a huge part of our future, because it has limitless applications.”
Solomon is not alone: over two-thirds of secondary-school students in high-income countries around the world regularly turn to AI to complete different tasks. But not all of them are fully aware of the risks this new technology poses.
While AI can be used to tailor educational content to meet individual needs, free up time for teachers by automating administrative tasks, and build skills that will be needed in the future labour market, it also raises a number of questions.
Not only are AI applications out of reach for many educational institutions around the world—1 in 4 primary schools still lack electricity and only 50% of lower secondary schools are connected to the web, according to UNESCO data—but there is also a risk that governments, in allocating resources towards AI, could divert funding away from education.
Moreover, there is a lack of guidance on how this technology should be used in classrooms to improve learning outcomes. In 2022, for instance, only 15 countries had included AI learning objectives in their national curricula, and only 7 countries had developed AI frameworks or programmes for teachers.
UNESCO AI competency frameworks
At the ISP, teachers – including Ms Laura Friday, Secondary School English Teacher, and Mr Kevin Mount, Secondary School Mathematics Department Lead – are committed to ensuring their students understand how AI works, and how to use it critically, so that it does not replace humans in essential processes such as decision-making.
The ethos of being a teacher is that we are learners ourselves, we model lifelong learning. We are positioned better than most to embrace these changes.
For this reason, the ISP is implementing UNESCO’s AI competency frameworks for teachers and learners. These frameworks support the inclusion of AI-related topics in core subjects such as STEM and social studies, while advancing principles such as fairness, privacy and gender equality.
Teachers are showing students how AI can be used both effectively and responsibly – for example, as a personal tutor. In Ms Friday’s English class, students type their paragraphs into ChatGPT. She then teaches them how to prompt the tool to get the feedback she herself would give to them. “And so now at home, they kind of have a Ms Friday at their fingertips all the time,” she concludes.
This approach leads to better learning outcomes. As Mr Mount underlines, the focus is on competencies, “the critical and creative thinking, keeping the human in the centre.”
Indeed, education is a fundamentally human process, which revolves around the relationship between teacher and student. AI can be a powerful assistant in this regard, but it can never replace the social and emotional skills of educators, who seek to ensure that the best interests of learners always come first. “We’re talking about the ethics and the way the world might look in 10 years. Our students are going to be living in this future world,” says Mr Mount.
Ultimately, UNESCO’s competency frameworks seek to enable people to make informed decisions about how and whether they use AI. As Solomon says, “you can’t really restrict access to AI, but what you can do is encourage to use it in the right ways.”
