Harnessing AI for teacher empowerment: Teacher development, self-reflection, and lesson planning

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In an increasingly digital society, the landscape of education is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). AI offers unique opportunities to support teachers, enhancing their effectiveness and easing many of the burdens associated with lesson planning, classroom management, and professional growth. This panel, Harnessing AI for Teacher Empowerment: Teacher Development, Self-Reflection, and Lesson Planning, will delve into how AI-driven tools are redefining teacher roles, facilitating teacher development, fostering reflective practice, and supporting educators in delivering high-quality, personalized instruction.

The teaching profession is multifaceted, requiring educators to balance instructional planning, student engagement and learning, and their own professional development. Teachers often face time constraints, high expectations, and the challenge of meeting diverse student needs. AI offers solutions to these challenges by providing tailored resources, feedback, and data-driven insights that allow teachers to focus on their primary goal: enhancing student learning.

One of the key themes of this panel will be AI’s potential to enhance teacher development and skills. Traditional professional development models are often static and delivered at scheduled times that may not meet a teacher’s immediate needs. In contrast, AI-powered platforms offer a more flexible and individualized approach, allowing teachers to access professional development content that is aligned with their specific areas of interest or skill gaps. Viamo will share pilot results from an audio-based AI teacher support system in Tanzania that delivers tailored training in response to teacher questions, enabling teachers to engage in learning at their own pace and when it is most relevant to their current challenges. This empowers teachers to take control of their professional growth, ensuring they can continuously adapt to changing classroom dynamics and student needs.

In addition to ongoing professional development, teachers thrive when they receive individual coaching to guide them in improving classroom practices. AI-powered platforms can offer personalized feedback on teaching practices by analyzing classroom interactions and instructional techniques. These systems can provide real-time suggestions, offer alternative strategies, and track a teacher's progress over time. Furthermore, unlike traditional coaching, which is often constrained by cost and availability of skilled practitioners, AI-based systems can increase the quality of feedback to allow for greater scalability in a resource-constrained environment. Room to Read will share experiences and lessons learned from their development of an AI-enabled chatbot that provides coaches with expert information and advice at their fingertips for ongoing, data-informed feedback based on observations of classroom teaching. The presentation will reflect on how AI can complement human coaching to create more accessible, sustainable, and data-driven professional support systems for teachers by overcoming traditional barriers to coaching, ensuring more teachers receive the targeted feedback needed to improve classroom practices and student outcomes.

In addition to its coaching potential, AI can play a significant role in prompting teacher self-reflection. Reflective practice is widely regarded as a critical component of teacher development, yet many educators struggle to find the time or tools to engage in deep reflection. AI systems can assist by identifying patterns in student performance, classroom management, and teaching behaviors, offering prompts that encourage teachers to reflect on their practices.As one example of such technology, RTI’s Loquat platform empowers teachers to monitor and self-reflect on their classroom talk time via AI-enabled analysis of the balance between the talk-time of teachers and their students. In addition, it provides tips for creating more active and inclusive classrooms. Using these data-driven insights, teachers can recognize areas for growth they might not have identified on their own, fostering a mindset of continuous learning and improvement.

Furthermore, AI can be a powerful tool in the realm of lesson planning. The development of high-quality, differentiated lesson plans that meet the needs of all learners is time-intensive, yet critical to student success. AI can assist by automating parts of the planning process, suggesting content, activities, and assessments that align with curriculum standards and individual student needs. Edubot, presented by One World, is an AI bot specifically designed to support teachers’ lesson planning functions such as creating objectives, know and show charts, exit tickets and lesson plans that are contextualized to individual country contexts. This presentation will explore how Edubot can streamline lesson planning, enabling teachers to spend more time on instructional delivery and student engagement.

This panel, through its four different, yet complementary, presentations will highlight the intersection of AI and education through the lens of teacher support, offering practical insights into how AI can enhance the work of educators. The presentations showcase a variety of projects that leverage AI to support teachers in the classroom, ranging from early development stages to pilot programs and tested interventions. Attendees will gain practical insights into the key strategies and best practices necessary for developing and implementing effective AI applications in educational settings. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how AI tools can be integrated into everyday teaching practice, not as a replacement for the teacher’s role but as a critical ally in fostering more effective, reflective, and personalized education.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Kerri Thomsen, Room to Read

Chair

• Juan G. Fernandez, One World Network of Schools

Individual Presentations

• AI-assisted coaching: A new strategy for quality at scale - Kerri Thomsen, Room to Read

• Loquat - Classroom Talk Time at Teacher’s Fingertips - Carmen Strigel, RTI International; Hétter Núñez