Generative AI: Saving Teachers time and improving planning

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming how we learn and teach, for many school leaders these new technologies seem too complex to really engage with.

Increasingly, however, we are seeing Generative AI tools like ChatGPT quickly and effectively streamlining teacher processes, improving their collaboration and giving them more time to spend with students.

So, as you start considering generative AI in your school context, it is worth exploring some of the options for quickly accessing and benefitting from Generative AI alongside your existing school management systems and processes.

In this article we explore one area where teachers and learning leaders can immediately begin using generative AI in schools to save time and increase their collective impact: Curriculum, Unit and Lesson planning.

Curriculum, Unit and Lesson planning with Generative AI
 

We know that all teachers and learning leaders are time poor. Routine and administrative tasks can often take up hours of each day or week – and a common mantra from teachers is that they “just don’t have enough time”.
We also know that lesson planning (and its often-forgotten bigger sister Unit planning) are some of the biggest time thieves teachers face. According to the OECD, teachers spend on average 7 hours a week planning lessons – often the morning before that lesson will be delivered.  

Not only does this rob teachers of critical time in their day, it also risks creating lesson plans with limited alignment to the overall school curriculum and unit planning approach.
 

Where Generative AI can help

Schools worldwide are already seeing the benefits of AI including the automation of a range of time-consuming tasks.

A survey by the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA) showed that the greatest reported benefit of generative AI tools for educators was saving time.

Teachers are using generative AI tools to create lesson plans and develop differentiated learning tasks for students. Teachers have found that they can also use generative AI to generate:

• Ideas for curriculum unit outlines
• Rubrics for assessing student work
• Class discussion questions
• Learning resources
• Personalised lesson plans for each student
• Ideas for classroom activities

Importantly Generative AI can be used alongside existing learning management systems – without the need for complex technical integrations. For example, using AI tools alongside SEQTA’s inbuilt collaborative teacher planning infrastructure can significantly reduce teacher planning time while improving overall consistency, quality and visibility for school leaders. Just by accessing basic curriculum content together with some simple prompts, teachers can quickly generate detailed and coherent Unit and Lesson plans, allowing them to more effectively create and share resources and personalise the student learning experience.
Importantly, this work can be done using publicly available curriculum content, without any need to share a school’s protected data.

Another positive impact reported in the survey was the potential for generative AI to personalise lesson plans for students with literacy difficulties. Adding this work to faster and more effective lesson planning can be real time-saver for teachers and a significant contributor to more consistent pedagogical approaches across each school.

Want to learn more about using AI tools to support teacher planning? Watch a recording of our practical webinar on Using Generative AI to save time and improve Unit and Lesson planning. Our teaching and learning expert Kim Edwards takes you and your team through a set of simple steps to immediately begin benefitting from Gen AI to save time and strengthen your school’s planning work. Press play below to watch

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