The great promise of education: personalizing learning with AI

For decades now, education has struggled with the two-sigma problem posed by Benjamin Bloom. Bloom's Taxonomy is his best known research, but I believe his most important research is in which he demonstrated that students who receive personalized training through individualized tutoring and contingent help in practice to mastery can improve their performance by two standard deviations over those who follow a conventional teaching model. However, the implementation of this tutoring on a large scale was always considered unfeasible due to the lack of human and logistical resources.

Today, with the rise of artificial intelligence, that barrier may finally be breaking down. However, AI has burst into education with the promise of making teachers' jobs easier to save them time: assisting with lesson planning, automating assessment, generating content, and personalizing learning for each student. But this raises a crucial question: What will teachers do with the extra time that AI saves them?

AI as an assistant: a partial help

So far, most AI applications in the classroom have served to alleviate administrative and repetitive tasks. Tools such as ChatGPT, Khanmigo or adaptive platforms can generate exercises, propose learning paths and provide automatic feedback to students. This has significantly reduced the workload of teachers, allowing them to devote more time to direct interaction with students.

However, the real impact of AI in education is not limited to automation. The key lies in its potential to transform the role of the teachernot only lightening their load, but also helping them to improve their professional skills to wisely use the extra time they will have, being even more decisive in the learning outcome of their students, getting into personalization where they could not before, i.e., being a more powerful teacher.

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From assistant to mentor: AI for teacher development

If AI is able to personalize learning for students, why couldn't it do the same for teachers? Instead of being just a tool to simplify tasks, AI can become a mentor to help educators improve their practice, reflect on their methodologies and develop new teaching strategies.

There are emerging initiatives that point in this direction. Platforms such as TeachersPRO explore the possibility of using AI for analysis and feedback on the classes taught by teachers. By transcribing and analyzing classroom sessions, AI can identify patterns of interaction, suggest improvements in communication, and recommend more effective pedagogical strategies.

A paradigm shift in teacher education

Teacher training and professional development have traditionally been centered on workshops, conferences and formal courses and isolated from real classroom practice. However, the best teacher training occurs in practice, in continuous reflection on one's own teaching and in exchange with colleagues. AI can enhance this process of continuous improvement because it does not get tired, constantly learns about the trajectory and profile of the teacher and is available 24/7 to provide constant accompaniment, generating personalized diagnoses and promoting the development of key competencies for the education we need today and in the future.

Therefore, the impact of AI in education should not be limited to mere assistance in time management. Its true value lies in its ability to empower teaching and improve the quality of education through teacher professional development. The future of education will not just be about automating learning, but about how teachers can use AI to evolve and improve their practice, enriching and enhancing their ability to produce learning in their classrooms.

Are we prepared for this change?