ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE SERVICE OF LEARNER-LED EDUCATION AND THE TEACHER’S TRANSFORMED ROLE - Paper

Oct 15, 2026

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Education is undergoing a fundamental transformation driven and enabled by contemporary technology, especially Artificial Intelligence. The post-primary phase will be learner-led in what learners study, how, where, when, and why. Teachers will need an enhanced, more professionally rewarding role, supported by AI. The paper explains how AI can help each component flourish across learner leadership, curriculum and materials, teacher meta-guidance, work links, and social, ethical, and equity implications.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Learners Leading

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE SERVICE OF LEARNER-LED EDUCATION AND THE TEACHER’S TRANSFORMED ROLE PHILIP UYS Senior education freelance consultant Adjunct Associate international Professor, University of Adelaide, Australia MIKE DOUSE Former Professor and International Education Advisor ABSTRACT Education is undergoing a fundamental transformation, necessitated and made possible by contemporary technology, notably Artificial Intelligence. Central to this transformation is the realisation that the post primary learners will lead in terms of what each will study, how, where, when and to what purpose. This will entail a refocussed and enhanced role for teachers, requiring and enabling them to perform more professionally rewarding activities than is presently the case. This paper suggests how Artificial Intelligence may enable each element in this forthcoming educational configuration to flourish. It outlines the form, nature and performance ofAI in relation to (a) the ability of learners to lead their learning; (b) curriculum and the availability of coursesand learning materials; (c) the teacher’s transformed role, emphasising meta roles, guidance, personal feedback and encouragement; (d) linkages with the evolving world of work; and (e) social, ethical, equity and other implications. Essentially, the challenge is not one of describing how AI may contribute to current educational patterns and philosophies but, rather, that of enabling and optimising the totally transformed educational arrangements made inevitable and feasible by AI itself. Educational planners, let it be emphasised, are critical to the efficacious meeting of that allencompassing challenge. BACKGROUND Much of the discussion of AI in education is founded upon the false assumption that schools, colleges, universities and systems would remain much the same as now, sculpted for an industrial society, designed for a disconnected world, based upon herding the learners into designated places, teaching at them, applying externally imposed curricula, and determining their life chances partly upon their ability to regurgitate irrelevancies. Most lives have been lived in such circumstances and it is understandably difficult to think outside that particular closed box. At present, only the most perceptive planners, professors and presenters acknowledge that education is undergoing a fundamental transformation, necessitated and enabled by contemporary technology. There seems to be a virtually unquestioned belief that AI would be incorporated into a static world of buildings called schools and colleges, content called curricula, knowledge fonts called teachers, and sorting mechanisms called exams. This is much as if we were driving Formula One vehicles along 19th century cart tracks. A typical recognition is that “artificial intelligence is the future that is constantly growing and can be benefited from in the field of education and must be properly exploited to build a new world that depends heavily on digital societies”(Maad, 2022). A widespread shortcoming is to ignore the inevitable and deep developments in the nature, structure and objectives of education consequent upon AI being the future. However, there is already some recognition that “in a scenario where jobs are significantly impacted, the high school years could shift focus away from employability” Educational Planning | Spring 2025 31 Vol. 32, No. 2 (Fadel, 2024), allowing education to “pivot all the more towards cultivating students’ identity, agency, and especially their motivation and purpose for a jobless world”. Dr Charles Fadel’s deep and wide-ranging review asks: “If AI does take over all jobs, leaving us free from the need to train for employment, what should the focus of education be?” He calls for a broad and deep education that fosters motivation, identity, agency, and purpose”(Fadel, 2024) . While admiring the range and creativity of his review, we find it remarkable that his

FAQs

What major transformation does the paper describe in education?

Education is undergoing a fundamental transformation enabled by contemporary technology, notably Artificial Intelligence, shifting the learning model toward learner leadership after the primary years.

How does the paper characterize learners’ role in the future education configuration?

Post-primary learners are expected to lead what each will study, and how, where, when, and to what purpose learning happens.

What changes does the paper propose for the teacher’s role?

Teachers will take on transformed “meta roles,” emphasizing guidance, personal feedback, encouragement, and more professionally rewarding activities supported by AI.

Oct 15, 2026

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