Too much has been written and spoken about artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, in education. Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI has taken the central stage in educational discussions. Numerous conference presentations, journal articles, and books have appeared, all trying to suggest, recommend, and predict the future of AI uses in education. But most of the discussions, regardless of their scholarly quality, are primarily focused on using AI in the traditional arrangement of schools or following the “grammar of schooling” (Tyack & Tobin, 1994). The assumption is that everything the traditional school has operated with shall remain the same: curriculum and curriculum standards, age-based grouping, fragmented knowledge or subjects, standardized assessments, and teacher-centered classrooms. AI tools, according to most of the advice, are to be incorporated into teaching by teachers just like previous technologies.
Even the most recent books that advocate for teaching new skills and using new pedagogies such as Education for the Age of AI: Why, What and How Should Students Learn for the Age of Artificial
Intelligence? (Fadel et al., 2024) and AI in Education: How Teachers & Educators Can Create Personalized Lesson Plans, Provide Real-Time Feedback, and Help Students Reach Their Full Potential Using Artificial Intelligence (Robert, 2024) follow the most basic principle of traditional schooling: one-size-fits-all. That is, one program, one expectation, one pathway, and one organization for all students. The proposed what and how of learning may have changed, but they apply to all students. Even the so-called personalized learning is to support one-size-fits-all by allowing students to vary slightly in the process of learning (Zhao, 2016c).
What if we consider education in the age of AI without thinking about the existing schooling system? We know that schools are extremely resilient social organizations. They have not changed much since their conceptualization in the nineteenth century despite numerous efforts (Cuban, 1993, 2001; Goldin & Katz, 2008; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). But a thought exercise that does not bind education within the schooling system is valuable because it at least can point out directions where education policy makers and practitioners could work toward.
Scoop.it!
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