Preparing teacher education for a future with AI

Integrating AI into teacher education brings opportunities similar to those for general education: personalised and improved learning experiences, support for assessment tasks, an easier trace of students’ progress and the automation of administrative tasks. It also raises concerns around ethical use, data privacy and digital gaps due to equipment and/or skill provision.

The Train-DL project found that even if AI education is given high priority in national/regional AI strategies, it is much less well-developed than data literacy. The project’s case studies showed that a clear strategy for teacher education in AI is missing. Similarly, a Swedish study mapping AI literacy in teacher education indicates that AI literacy is not widely included in teacher training programmes as the focus is mainly on the technological aspects of AI.

Strengthening AI literacy in teacher training

While the policy is catching up, several training institutes are already swinging into action. For example, the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland, provides comprehensive continuing education on generative AI to its staff and teachers. Training methods include expert lectures, workshops and peer learning opportunities to cater to different learning styles.

Similarly, in Estonia, teachers have access to in-service training on AI literacy. The ‘How to make AI work for you’ teacher training course blends AI with educational frameworks, enabling teachers to test AI-supported learning scenarios and gain insights into AI applications.

The ‘Teacher Professional Development in the Age of AI’ report and webinar series (European Schoolnet, 2024) explored strategies leveraging generative AI capabilities, addressed the associated challenges and discussed the implications of them for teacher training programmes. The report presents large language models (LLMs) and AI image/video generation as examples of customised teacher training assistants.

The report highlights that interactions with AI should foremost be used to provoke discussion and draft prompts – all to be further critiqued and improved through collaboration.