Educators might soon have an AI blueprint, thanks to this Australian school

When it comes to using AI in schools there is currently no blueprint to guide educators, but thanks to leaders at St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School in Western Australia, one might soon be within reach.

Having already designed its own AI agents, framework, and usage guidelines, the school is now leading major scientific research to evaluate their effectiveness.

Consenting students are part way through the two-year study, in partnership with Murdoch University, to determine whether the blueprint supports their critical thinking.

Dean of Teaching and Learning, Monica Gordon, says this work will help establish best practice for AI in secondary education – a sector under increasing pressure to build AI literacy, yet one where AI hesitancy remains rife.

“Some schools are banning AI because they aren’t sure how to implement it safely and effectively and other schools are allowing the use of AI with minimal guidance. There is lots of variation in the AI policies that do exist,” Monica said.

“It’s hard to know what to do. Yes, there is a fair bit of research around AI and learning, but it has mostly focused on university students. There isn’t much to guide AI usage in school settings. And there definitely isn’t much in the way of a framework. We’re told, ‘yes, you can use AI’, but there is no direction around the boundaries we’re meant to put in place when we do.”

With St Mary’s still collecting data, it does not yet have all the answers. However, Monica says the school’s AI resources are, so far, positively impacting student engagement and performance.

“We designed these resources in consultation with our students, so they have been well received. Students previously told us they wanted to use AI but weren’t sure what was acceptable. They wanted more objectivity around that, which is exactly what our resources provide,” she said.

Critical thinking is expected to flourish

These findings are in line with the study’s hypothesis, which is foretelling an improvement in critical thinking ability, among students who are directed towards a more balanced and intentional way of AI.

In other studies, unfettered AI usage has been found to impede critical thinking skills in university students. However, with intentional use - and effective countermeasures - the reverse is expected to occur.

“Because we're trying to use AI intentionally, we're expecting to see the opposite trend, where students’ critical thinking skills improve over time,” Monica said.

Guardrails are in place

Importantly, the school also has guardrails to prevent cognitive offloading - where people outsource their thinking to AI.

The first of these is a compass which maps out six AI functions and helps students determine whether AI is permissible for a particular context.

The second is a catalogue of bespoke AI agents, designed by the school, which isolate those functions for them.

“If students are only allowed to use AI for ‘ideas generation’, they can login to a dedicated AI agent that is only capable of generating ideas. It doesn’t give any answers,” Monica said.

If AI is needed for editing, students can access an AI editor agent. Rather than doing the editing for them, the tool gives direction for students to do it themselves.

Similarly, the school’s AI tutor agent gives students help with their homework, but with strict boundaries.

“We make it clear that the AI tutor can only be used once students have become experts. They need that content knowledge to assess AI output,” Monica said.

Pure AI tasks are less common at the school but are supported when required. St Mary’s currently gives access to a single verified AI platform, blocking all other varieties.

“We use a standard co-pilot interface where students can experiment with AI without the guardrails that these bespoke AI agents have in place,” Monica said.

Workshops

The school also runs workshops to educate students and families about the impacts of overusing AI on the brain and learning. Monica said at-home AI usage varies widely, with many families using it extensively.

“We don’t have a say in what happens at home, but we want to teach healthy AI habits and get people asking two key questions: Is this a good use of the technology and is it a good use of my brain?”

Monica points out that even adults might not have healthy AI habits and that, without them, it can be harder to shepherd young people through the AI revolution.

“We might start using AI to write our emails, then find it gets hard to write an e-mail on our own. And we certainly don't want that happening for our students.

“AI can boost productivity in a workplace. But when students are trying to learn for the first time, it's not the best tool to be using, because they actually don't have enough domain knowledge to look at an output and assess whether it’s good.”

Further insight

Sharing more on how St Mary’s is using AI, along with updates on their research study, Monica Gordon will present at the upcoming AI in Education WA Conference.

This year’s event will be held 17th November

Learn more and register here.