Thematic teaching is particularly well suited to fostering creativity in pupils. In practice, however, designing such lessons is complex and time-consuming. Can educational AI support learning and teaching in this area?
Creative Thematic Teaching with AI
A co-creation project of NOLAI for education
- Duration
- September 2025 until now
- Project type
- Research
- Organisation
- National Education Lab AI (NOLAI)
Challenge for education
Within education, there is growing interest in thematic teaching. This approach organises learning content around an overarching theme, allowing subjects such as geography, history, language and citizenship to be offered in a coherent way. It makes learning more meaningful and encourages pupils to make connections between different subject areas and their own everyday lives.
What teachers want
Creativity is becoming increasingly important in a rapidly changing society with complex challenges and an abundance of information. It is therefore crucial that pupils are encouraged to develop it. Thematic teaching is ideally suited to this, but in practice integrating creativity into lesson design often proves difficult due to limited time and other constraints. Could educational AI support teaching in this respect?
Smarter together through co-creation
Primary school De Klimboom, part of Florès Onderwijs and the Makerscosmos in Arnhem, has a strong arts and culture profile. Through NOLAI, the school has been connected with researchers from Radboud University and software developers from NOLAI. Together, they are developing and studying a prototype of a lesson-design tool that supports primary teachers step by step in designing thematic lessons that stimulate pupils’ creativity.
Development goals
- A tool that aligns with teachers’ existing workflow
- Generating suggestions for lesson elements and creative learning activities
- A knowledge base to support alignment between learning objectives, learning activities and forms of feedback
- Providing support at relevant moments in the design process through matching technology and large language models (LLMs)
Research questions
- What does teachers’ lesson-design process look like, and where—and in what form—can AI provide support?
- To what extent does the AI lesson-design tool contribute to perceived time savings, a reduction in design complexity and improved lesson quality?
- Does the use of AI create more room for creativity in lessons, and are teachers better able to stimulate their pupils’ creativity?
Current status
This project runs from 2025 to 2028 and has started with the preparatory and concept phase. Each co-creation project progresses through the development of a concept, a working prototype and the validation of that prototype. The results are shared online as quickly and openly as possible so that education, research and EdTech companies can benefit from them.
