Teacher-in-Residence Kevin op de vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI bij de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad
Teacher-in-Residence Kevin op de vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI bij de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad

Question Articulation Session for School Leaders

News item

Last week, NOLAI was a guest at a regional meeting of the VO-raad. Co-creation manager Marjolein Geerits and Teacher-in-Residence Kevin van der Pol gave a presentation on NOLAI and hosted a question articulation session at Het Rijks, a vmbo school in Nijmegen where some 50 school leaders from the East Region were present. What issues are school leaders concerned about AI in education? And how exactly does such a question articulation session work?

AI has far-reaching consequences for education. Fortunately, there are not only risks but also opportunities. For instance, with the help of AI, we can increase digital literacy and student motivation. AI also provides opportunities to offer more customised education, increase learning gains and prevent dropouts. Moreover, implementing AI in education can increase students' equity and free up teacher preparation time. But Marjolein immediately reassures attendees: "At NOLAI, we are always looking for a hybrid form of intelligence, so there remains a role for the teacher." 

AI as a Solution  
 

What do school leaders think about when it comes to AI in education? This is laid out in the word cloud below. ChatGPT and opportunities and development are often mentioned, as well as fraud and plagiarism. Co-creation manager Marjolein Geerits: "What is going on in your school right now that AI could potentially provide a solution for? What problems are you facing, and what would a solution with AI look like? And where is the expertise in that area in the Netherlands? We discuss this at NOLAI." A question-orientated articulation session is the starting point for this.  

Woordwolk over de vraag: Waar denk je aan bij AI in onderwijs? op de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad
Woordwolk over de vraag: Waar denk je aan bij AI in onderwijs? op de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad

Quadraam Co-Creation Project 
 

At the VO-raad regional meeting, two school leaders who are currently working with NOLAI on a co-creation project were present. One of them is Léon Lucas, Chairman of the Central Management of Candea College, part of Quadraam Foundation. He talks briefly about 'his' project: Promoting self-regulation in essay writing. Léon: "The biggest insight for me has been that AI is not just generative AI, but also something that can be meaningful for children's learning." 

Co-Creation Project Het Rijks 
 

Host Twan van den Hazenkamp is currently working with Het Rijks on a project proposal for the new round of co-creation projects. At his vmbo school, he noticed that students often struggled in tests and exams due to a lack of knowledge of concepts or a limited vocabulary. Twan: "Which concepts do pupils stumble over? And can we use AI to train them to increase their vocabulary so that they are better prepared for the exam, but also in real life?" 

Woordwolk over de vraag: Met welke thema's willen schoolleiders aan de slag? op de regiobijeenkosmt van de VO-raad
Woordwolk over de vraag: Met welke thema's willen schoolleiders aan de slag? op de regiobijeenkosmt van de VO-raad

Relevant Themes  
 

Candea College and Het Rijks' projects captured the school leaders' imagination. Marjolein and Kevin show some more co-creation projects of NOLAI, where the question articulation sessions begin. Which themes would the school leaders like to work with themselves? The teacher shortage is an important issue that is mentioned a lot, as can be seen in the word cloud above. However, the high workload and student motivation also need to be considered. Based on the responses, Marjolein and Kevin selected seven themes that the attendees will work on in groups. 

  1. Teacher shortage 
  2. Student motivation 
  3. Improving reading skills 
  4. Improving examination results 
  5. ChatGPT 
  6. Profile choice 
  7. Digital literacy 

Question Articulation in 3 Steps  
 

Each group is asked to sketch a situation around the chosen theme: a description of a situation in which they would like to see change. Next, each group discusses what needs need to be considered in the chosen practical situation. Finally, the groups are allowed to brainstorm out-of-the-box about possible solutions with AI. Which solution with AI best matches the needs? 

De poster waarop deelnemers aan de vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI hun vraagstukken, behoeftes en oplossingen in kunnen vullen
De poster waarop deelnemers aan de vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI hun vraagstukken, behoeftes en oplossingen in kunnen vullen

Shared Concerns  
 

The attendees dove straight into the topics, which made room for interesting discussions. There was a lot of mutual recognition in the chosen situations, with common concerns including the limited possibilities for alternative forms of testing, fake news and deep fakes, low motivation among pupils due to the outdated curriculum, the teacher shortage caused by a wrong image of the profession, and the continuous distraction of learning and reading by smartphones. 

Inspiring Form of Work  
 

The groups gave short but inspiring presentations after the question articulation session. The names of the AI applications that the groups came up with were so sharp and creative. For instance, the group that had the theme of digital literacy came up with a "OnderwAIs assistant". Around the theme of exam results, the "Pass-generator" was devised, an application that analyses practice tests and exams to create a personal learning plan for each pupil so that they go into the central exams well prepared. And to enhance students' reading skills, "Taylor Swift teaches me to read" was devised, an application that capitalises on ChatGPT's expert paradox. 

De vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI bij de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad is in volle gang
De vraagarticulatiesessie van NOLAI bij de regiobijeenkomst van de VO-raad is in volle gang

From Question Articulation Session to Co-Creation Project  
 

At the end of the question articulation session, the present school leaders were invited to continue discussing their concerns with NOLAI if they so wished. With this, there is an opportunity for many new co-creation projects to be devised! NOLAI organises several question articulation sessions every year, spread across the country, where we collect questions and problems that are present in education. Every year, we develop ten questions into co-creation projects, which are research projects in which we work with schools, researchers and business partners to develop a prototype of an AI application that really helps teachers and pupils. Would you like to stay informed about our projects or participate in a question articulation session yourself? Then subscribe to our newsletter! 

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Contact information

Organizational unit
National Education Lab AI (NOLAI)
Theme
Artificial intelligence (AI)