“Will AI replace Teachers?” — Views from Austria and Bangladesh
Written by Dr Bibiane BLAUENSTEINER (Austria) and Mr Tushar Kanti BAIDYA (Bangladesh)
This article is part of a series on the topic “Will AI replace Teachers?” written by the participant teachers of the #ASEFClassNet15 Conference, from 51 #ASEM countries. Check out the introduction essay here! Find more information about the conference here!
An assessment of the consequences in the progressive development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in general, and specifically in the context of teaching and learning is imperative at the present moment and challenging to evaluate on many levels.
In this brief, we — a teacher from Bangladesh and one from Austria — do not attempt to give you answers, instead our goal is to sketch some of our personal experiences and observations on this subject matter to create further awareness, encouragement and a platform for discussion on issues that relate to this topic.
Will AI replace teachers? Why is this question posed?
Is there something deficient with teachers that urge a replacement? Or are there justified reasons for concerns that teachers are in danger of being replaced in a worrisome fashion?
We agree that there are obvious gaps in the education system with reference to schools systems and set ups, teaching methodologies and in the role that teachers are expected to fulfill.
Most of us will agree on the fundamental aims of education in today’s day and age[1]: Education should ultimately equip the next generation with knowledge, skills, and a positive attitude as a foundation towards leading a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life, personally and within a community (local and global). We envision teachers to lead and encourage their students through deep learning, inspiration, reflection and awareness .
When reviewing the status quo, including personal experiences and observations one finds this situation far from that ideal, in reality. A major factor is the adherence to obsolete structures, teaching methods, and curricula which are not only starkly contrasted by the demands and challenges, but also gaps in the rapidly changing world and Education environment.
We have identified that the main obstacle for teachers in the current system is the permanent lack of time. There is more need for individual support, feedback, and mentoring of students than the teachers are able to dedicate. A large amount of time is spent on conveying information and assessing academic knowledge versus in engaging students.
AI seems a promising application and desired in the progression of Education, particularly in its ability to facilitate: Intelligent tutoring systems that are able to design an individual’s learning paths, provide content-based support, and construct feedback for students; most importantly it can free up a teacher’s time for tasks which (still) require human guidance and interaction.
It is worth mentioning, that we have encountered diverse learning situations where the absence of some aspects of “a real person” and interpersonal responses (such as empathy and corrective guidance) are components that have to be considered an advantage.
A related, very interesting but different question is the following: Will (can) there ever be “artificial consciousness” and can the human mind and its actions ever be replaced?
We conclude this brief article with two statements:
1) AI should replace the teacher as a mere conveyer of information.
2) AI can probably never replace the teacher as a human being, guiding a student in their holistic humandevelopment, including academic and personal development.
[1] Conventional schools and teachers are of course only one possible — but prevalent — form of education.
About the authors:
Dr Bibiane BLAUENSTEINER, Science Teacher, Modulare Mittelstufe Aspern, Austria
Bibiane is a Science Teacher with a Doctoral degree in Physics from the University of Vienna. Her research background is in the field of Quantum Information Science and Technology. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Education, complemented by studies of Philosophy. In 2012 she joined the first cohort of Teach for Austria, a member of the Teach for All Network. She pursues her vision of equity in education in her daily work at school, in the implementation of local projects and her engagement in international initiatives and programmes, such as the Oak Foundation Reaching all Learners Fellowship (2018).
Mr Tushar Kanti BAIDYA, Teacher, Oxford International School, Bangladesh
Tushar Kanti is a teacher of English Language and Social Sciences at the Oxford International School, Dhaka. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics from BRAC University and a postgraduate degree in English from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been in the teaching profession since 2016. Next to his job, Tushar runs a project on social development titled “Faith in the Commonwealth”. This project promotes global citizenship and religious literacy among local youths of different religions. Tushar is also involved in addressing hate speech and building alternative narratives to counter hate speech, which is a part of his work for CVE/PVE. Tushar has been named as one of the Trust Conference Changemakers and is the recipient of “Faith in the Commonwealth Peace Award 2019”.
NOTE:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely by the author(s) and do not represent that of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).
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