Access to forts professional development for school leaders and educators has been a challenge and varies across school communities. Despite significant investments in professional development programs, the impact on teaching practices and student learning outcomes has produced broad and inconsistent results.
Recognizing this challenge, providing professional development that creates opportunities for educators to engage with new interactive and artificial intelligence technologies, such as chatbots, must be integrated into efforts.
<h2 id="the-need-for-x2013-and-promise-of-x2013-innovative-ai-supported-pd-xa0″>The Need and Promise of Innovative ai-Powered PD
Teacher shortages, burnout, and increased challenges among students and families have become pressing issues in education, making the need for high-quality professional development even more significant. ai-could-help-create-effective-scalable-teacher-pd” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” data-url=”https://rossier.usc.edu/news-insights/news/ai-could-help-create-effective-scalable-teacher-pd”>Researchers like Copur-Gencturk, which focus on the use of ai by secondary mathematics teachers in their professional development, recognize the obstacles in teaching a subject, with conceptual learning processes. By improving teachers' understanding of mathematical concepts and pedagogical content knowledge, professional development with ai can offer higher quality support.
As ai is used to improve student learning experiences, its potential to scale effective professional development programs is compelling to help make learning accessible to teachers anytime, anywhere. During the urgency demanded by the pandemic, a comparable level of convenient access was achieved. Educators had to adapt quickly and were offered abundant digital tools to engage in online teaching.
I referred to this as Pop-up PDin which teachers were motivated to learn in ways they previously resisted. Now, with the integration of ai-powered tools, teachers can access more robust individualized feedback and analysis of their performance, leading to better instructional practices and student outcomes.
Positive results and proof of concept
Through a pilot program implementing PD with a virtual ai facilitator based on natural language processing, Copur-Gencturk's research yields promising results. High school math teachers who completed the online professional development program achieved higher test scores among their students.
ai%20chatbots%20can%20provide%20immediate,supporting%20educators%20through%20various%20means” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” data-url=”https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-023-00426-1#:~:text=ai%20chatbots%20can%20provide%20immediate,supporting%20educators%20through%20various%20means”>Other examples of virtual assistants and chatbots to engage educators to improve instruction have emerged. The positive impact of ai-based interventions demonstrates the promise that personalized and scalable PD can be achieved through these tools. Additionally, providing a networked online platform that allows for confidential sharing of ideas can encourage educators and school leaders to express themselves more freely. With more freedom comes more creativity, something all schools can benefit from.
Expanding reach and potential benefits
Building on the success of emerging research offers insight into broader development potential across all subject areas for school leaders. Administrators often face increased isolation and concerns about speaking out, which infringes on their willingness to make adjustments.
ai that engages administrators, such as chatbots, can offer a broader range of development tools to equip new and developing school leaders with the tools needed to take on the many challenges of their positions.
Potential benefits of using ai in PD include:
- The ability to refine a quick query.. Finding that when an initial message is too vague or pointing in the wrong direction, we can quickly revise it to get the desired result. This frees the user to play more and feel less limited.
- Promote both knowledge of content and pedagogy.. Through personalized feedback from a chatbot for educators, hypothetical scenarios can be considered to help an administrator rehearse circumstances in a more engaging format that allows them to face real-life scenarios later with considerably authentic experience gained in shelters virtually. insurance.
- Provide quick references, guides and quick libraries.. These resources can offer support in areas such as lesson planning, assessment, communication, and social/emotional learning. For managers, chatbots can help guide the interactive processing of development ideas, ai-chatbot” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2023/06/feedback-using-ai-chatbot”>enable powerful feedback mechanismsand help clarify and increase the efficiency of communication methods.
- Allow different access points to learning opportunities.. Support for leadership and teacher preparation varies widely, particularly for those educators with limited resources and less access to PD. Closing this gap with efficiently accessible ai and virtual tools disrupts the gaps that permeate a wide range of local districts and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
- Saving time and costs. ai-powered online professional development programs not only save school leaders and teachers time, but also provide cost-effective solutions – a win-win. And while in-person professional development is invaluable and cannot be minimized, ai-powered platforms enable teachers to receive immediate, actionable feedback tailored to their specific needs, drawn from a vast ecosystem of resources. Additionally, the absence of in-person instructors reduces the costs associated with traditional professional development programs.
Precautions: Please note and navigate ai biases and hallucinations. ai algorithms are based on historical data, which can perpetuate biased patterns and reinforce existing inequalities in education.
To ensure fair and impartial PD, it is essential to understand the risks associated with ai biases and, more importantly, how to avoid those prejudices. Critically evaluate data and algorithms used in ai systems, actively address bias, and prioritize diversity and inclusion in ai development and deployment.
<h2 id="the-future-of-ai-supported-teacher-pd-xa0″>The Future of ai-Supported Teacher Professional Development
Integrating ai into teacher professional development does not replace human interactions and support. However, reinventing professional development by harnessing the potential of new technological advances allows educators to be more efficient and access a larger database of information. Leaders who need immediate, powerful, and low-cost capability development support, such as chatbots, can now access a rich new resource.
The use of ai in teacher professional development represents an important opportunity to improve instructional practices and student outcomes. ai-powered solutions, if used properly, can empower educators to thrive in their profession and create support for students, to help them reach their potential, a resource that cannot be ignored.
