In Fall 2024, EdSurge embarked on a two-year research project to study how teachers in grades 3–12 are responding to the rapid arrival of generative AI in classrooms. Through interviews and teaching and learning circles with educators across the United States, the project documented how teachers are experimenting with AI tools, where they see value, and where uncertainty remains.
While many conversations about AI in education focus on what the technology can do, this research centered a different question: how teachers decide whether these tools support meaningful learning. The findings reveal a profession navigating a period of rapid technological change while trying to protect the conditions that support student thinking and development.
Key insights from Teaching Tech are summarized below.
What We Learned About AI in Teaching & Learning
- Teachers want to prepare students for the future, including equipping them with technological competencies, but many are uncertain about the efficacy and safety of AI for learning. Read more: Teaching Through the Latest Industrial Revolution
- Teachers are utilizing AI for administrative tasks, such as lesson planning and grading preparation. Read more: What Students Gain When Teachers — Not AI — Grade Students’ Work
- The instructional use case for all-purpose generative AI tools that students use most frequently is still unclear to teachers, including ad-hoc product features. Read more: The AI Use Case Question Teachers Are Still Asking
- Teachers are performing individual risk assessments of AI tools as districts determine policies, guidance and professional development.
Read more: Prohibition Didn’t Stop Alcohol Use. Will It Work With AI? - As AI tools become more capable, teachers are reconsidering which skills best prepare students for a changing technological landscape.
Read more: From “Hello, World!” to AI: What Skills Actually Prepare Students for the Future? - Students’ interactions with AI systems reveal both the novelty and the limitations of these technologies in learning environments. Read more: What Students Learned After Chatting With A 1960s Therapist-Bot
