AI and Education: Accelerating Change in Teaching and Learning

Recently, the Ministry of Education, along with several national agencies, jointly issued the “AI + Education Action Plan”. This initiative aims to promote the cultivation of AI talent and application innovation, while systematically constructing an educational framework suitable for the intelligent era. More intelligent teaching scenarios that understand students better are guiding education towards a broader future.

Promoting AI Across All Education Levels

Currently, AI has become a strategic technology leading a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, driving productivity leaps at an unprecedented speed and profoundly reshaping production relationships. It poses new requirements for the skill sets of workers.

Zhou Dawang, Director of the Department of Science, Technology, and Information of the Ministry of Education, introduced that the “Action Plan” is divided into six parts, focusing on the integrated deployment of AI talent cultivation, application innovation, foundational environment, and ecological construction.

One highlight of the “Action Plan” is to establish a comprehensive education system for AI that spans all educational stages and promotes general education throughout society.

In primary and secondary education, AI education will be fully integrated into local curricula. Schools will follow the “Guidelines for General AI Education in Primary and Secondary Schools” to ensure the provision of adequate AI-related courses, clearly defining course objectives, content, and time requirements for each educational stage. Additionally, interdisciplinary teaching of AI will be encouraged, integrating AI education into after-school services and research practices. The plan emphasizes the combination of technological and humanistic education, focusing on nurturing students’ intelligence and moral development, guiding them to scientifically understand and reasonably utilize intelligent technologies, enhancing their AI literacy, stimulating curiosity, fostering innovative thinking, and improving their cognitive and problem-solving abilities.

In higher education, AI will become a public foundational course, with textbooks categorized by discipline. This aims to ensure that all students acquire knowledge of AI. The curriculum will be adjusted according to the optimization of industry structure and technological upgrades, with new disciplines introduced to meet the demands of new technologies, industries, and business models.

In vocational education, the plan will promote the intelligent upgrade of traditional industry-related majors, cultivating high-skilled talents that adapt to industrial transformation. It will also collaborate with industry enterprises to develop talent training programs, update curricula, and co-build internship and training bases, specifically targeting the cultivation of high-skilled talents for emerging positions.

Strengthening the AI Open Alliance

The AI Open Alliance, established at the end of last year, serves as an important mechanism for promoting “AI + Education”. It plays a significant role in talent cultivation, technical breakthroughs, and international cooperation.

According to Li Luming, President of Tsinghua University, the AI Open Alliance consists of 17 high-level research universities and 8 leading technology enterprises and research institutions. It aims to become a source for foundational breakthroughs and technological innovations in the AI era, an important window for international cooperation in AI, and a strategic support point for promoting the “AI +” initiative.

Currently, projects such as the construction of a scientific intelligent corpus led by Peking University and a higher education corpus project led by the Higher Education Press have received national support. These projects effectively integrate resources from different universities and enterprises through the open alliance, providing technological support to seize the high ground in AI development.

Moreover, focusing on key challenges in empowering higher education with AI, the AI Open Alliance is working to empower industry development and create synergy. For example, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is leading the construction of the Qiwuy Learning Community, engaging a wide range of teachers and students in building an open-source collaborative ecosystem to stimulate the vitality of young people. Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications is planning the construction of a national educational intelligent computing service platform to effectively gather quality computing power, data, models, and tools to address the shortage of intelligent application supply.

“Deepening international cooperation and promoting Chinese solutions to go global,” Li Luming said. “We will host events like the AI Youth Summit and Open Source Carnival, and compile the ‘AI Education Ethics Guidelines’ to make more Chinese solutions an international consensus, promoting global AI development.”

Enhancing Teachers’ AI Literacy and Skills

Teachers are key to the deep integration of AI and education. The “Action Plan” clearly states that standards for teachers’ AI literacy will be established, with tiered and categorized training conducted based on different job requirements to achieve full coverage. A situational assessment system will be constructed, and intelligent, graded assessment tools will be developed, allowing for large-scale assessments of teachers’ literacy, with targeted improvements based on results.

The “Action Plan” also proposes reforms in teacher training, integrating knowledge of cutting-edge technologies like AI into the curriculum and updating the knowledge system. AI will be included in teacher qualification exams and certification content, and intelligent education projects will be established in national and provincial teaching achievement awards to stimulate the intrinsic motivation for AI innovation.

According to Yao Xiaoying, Principal of the Foreign Language Primary School affiliated with Shenzhen University, the entry of AI into primary and secondary schools requires teachers to not only understand technology better but also to understand children and the process of education more deeply. In the intelligent era, the role of teachers has shifted from being mere “knowledge transmitters” to becoming “learning designers,” “growth companions,” and “value guides.”

“AI can handle standardized tasks like knowledge explanation, homework grading, and information retrieval, allowing teachers to focus more on stimulating children’s curiosity, protecting their imagination, fostering innovative thinking, and shaping well-rounded personalities. This is irreplaceable by AI and represents the core, indispensable value of teachers,” Yao said.

For vocational colleges, how to enhance teachers’ digital capabilities more effectively?

At Jinhua Vocational and Technical University, training future new teachers is one of the school’s key tasks. According to President Liang Keding, the school systematically promotes the enhancement of teachers’ digital capabilities in response to the needs of internship and training teaching reforms. It has established a three-tier AI empowerment system covering general education, interdisciplinary integration, and research enhancement, allocating special funds each year to support over 20 teacher teams in conducting research on intelligent training design and virtual-real integrated teaching, resulting in the creation of 34 typical AI teaching scenarios.

“We are upgrading the functions of the ‘Chuangxue Jinzhi’ smart learning platform to provide teachers with one-stop support for intelligent lesson preparation, virtual simulation, teaching design, and training process data analysis. Additionally, AI teaching capabilities will be included in the evaluation and assessment system for professional titles, establishing a mechanism to measure contributions to teaching innovation, thereby systematically enhancing teachers’ digital competence and teaching innovation capacity.” Liang Keding said.