Results of the teachers’ survey on Artificial Intelligence help European Commission to develop ethical guidelines

Consultation on the use of AI and data in teaching and learning for educators

In 2022, the European Commission undertook a consultation process to inform the implementation of Action 6 ‘Ethical guidelines on the use of AI and data in teaching and learning for educators’ part of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027. During the consultation process, various stakeholders shared their feedback and suggestions on the content of the Guidelines, including primary, secondary and VET teachers, other education staff and researchers from across Europe, to make the guidelines as relevant, accessible and useful as possible. 

The online survey consisted of 22 questions on the respondents’ experience in using AI in teaching and training and their preferences for the Guidelines. The results reveal that teachers working in secondary education and having more than 20 years of professional experience show higher interest in the topic, as well as teachers working in Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, the Netherlands and Greece.

Application of AI in education

Interestingly, 60% of the respondents were not sure if they had ever used AI whereas most of them thought that AI’s main role is to support teaching. However, they would expect AI to assist them in assessment of learning, auto-grading and adaptive learning while showing lower interest in dashboards, chatbots or administrative processes (enrolment, absences, etc.). 

Challenges of AI in education

Teachers expressed strong ethical concerns, emphasised their lack of knowledge of the relevant regulatory framework and requested more training on these topics: what is AI, how to select AI tools and plan lessons, and how to explain it to stakeholders. So far, most of the schools have not considered the use of AI. As to the expectations from the European Commission, a majority requested a set of case studies/good practices, a competences framework and a list of resources.