Education in an AI-powered world

Jeremy Swinfen Green argues that UK schools need to change the way they teach, if they are to prepare children for a world of AI-powered work

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is radically changing the world of work, and education needs to change with it. At its simplest, children need to be taught how to use AI in research and assessments. But the way education is delivered also needs to change profoundly, to enable today’s children to thrive in a world of AI-powered work where remembering information is far less important than dealing with people.

 

What do children need to learn at school to prepare them for work in this AI-powered world? Is it Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education designed to develop their social and emotional skills? Do they still need rote learning? Will adults of the future all need to know how to code if they are to succeed at work? And should teenagers all turn into mini-scientists with a focus on STEM subjects?

 

There has been considerable political debate about the right way to ensure education supports jobs and the economy (TLDR: Labour = PHSE, Conservative = STEM and rote). And then, suddenly, a couple of years ago, easily accessible and free-to-use AI tools emerged, prompting many to wonder whether there would even be jobs for people in the future.

 

While AI systems will inevitably destroy some jobs, AI-powered tools will enhance most work: humans will be freed from routine data processing (at which they are not always very good) to concentrate on the thing they are good at - being human.

 

So, what does AI mean for education in the UK? First of all, let’s consider a couple of “hard” skills.

 

 

Hard skills in business

There are many vocational skills that are important for particular roles: the ability to use a pipe flaring tool, to calculate employee tax rates, or to write an SEO-friendly blog post are skills important for very specific jobs. However, there are also two very important skills that are important for almost any role: numeracy and memorising.

 

Numeracy is essential in business. That doesn’t have to mean being happy with differential calculus (although that’s not a bad thing and many people have fun with numbers). It means having the confidence to calculate a rough answer.

 

Feeling comfortable with numbers is an essential business skill. Engineers use rough calculations to check the feasibility of a project before starting on a detailed plan. Doctors use it to check whether they have calculated the dosage of a drug correctly. Business people use it to check whether a marketing plan makes sense or whether an initial costing proposal is worth discussing further. And it’s essential as a way of checking if an answer generated by AI is likely to be correct.

 

Having a calculator won’t help you get a rough answer. Apart from being a distraction in a conversation, it’s easy to get a decimal point in the wrong place, and so you will need to do a rough calculation to check that your answer is correct!

 

Memorising facts, or rote learning is important too. I have long ago forgotten the dates of all the kings of England. But the practice of learning them helped me learn and remember other things that might be more useful, things like keyboard shortcuts or the time I am due at the dentist next week. Rote learning is a discipline; it can be taught along with useful strategies to improve it, such as mnemonics and memory palaces; and it’s a little like a muscle in that the more that memory is used, the more it improves.

 

The ability to learn by rote, and have the confidence to be sure you are remembering well, is an essential business capability. In a negotiation, you may well have to remember the prices that several competing suppliers quoted you. You may need to explain a new concept containing several different elements to someone. Or you may simply need to remember someone’s name when you meet them again.

 

 

Soft skills in business

What about soft skills? Most people are naturally good at these “people skills”. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be improved during education. There are three skill sets that are particularly important for employment: personal attributes such as discipline and grit; interpersonal skills such as teamwork, leadership and persuasion; and creativity and problem solving.

 

All of these skills can be nurtured within the existing curriculum if the right techniques are used. They are important because they are all skills that today’s AI systems are poor at. That’s why they must be given higher prominence in school and tertiary education.

 

Personal attributes are what some people might call “character”. They include pride in oneself, integrity, discipline and grit. They are demonstrated in characteristics that are fundamental to success at work, such as turning up on time, effort, perseverance when things get harder, and integrity.

 

Can you teach character? I think you can. The basic disciplines of school life will help to a degree, but perhaps the easiest way is on (and off) the sports field or in adventure training and programmes such as the DofE. Project work is another good way: leaving people to work on their own, encouraging them to ask for help when they need it, giving them deadlines and restricted resources: these are all attributes that will help people thrive in the real world.

 

Interpersonal skills are also essential in business as they underpin the ability to work in or lead a team. AI systems are notably poor at emotional intelligence and empathy, even though they are sometimes used as tools in psychotherapy and counselling. There are formal techniques that can help with interpersonal skills, such as active listening and self-awareness, although my experience as a parent and (for a short while) a teacher might suggest that many children are impatient with these.

 

Instead, teamwork skills spring from team activities, including sports, music and drama, but also classroom-based team activities such as giving individual students the role of leading and moderating discussions. Group projects are also helpful, especially where groups are deliberately selected to include different abilities, cultures and personalities.

 

An essential interpersonal skill for business is effective communication. This is underpinned by emotional intelligence, including empathy and humility, and by character, including confidence and assertiveness. It involves the ability to explain complex issues as well as to persuade people. Drama can help, especially for nonverbal communication, but so can classroom activities that give students the chance to practice communication skills, such as discussions and presentations.

 

Creativity and problem-solving play an essential role in almost every job. Everyone wants to feel creative. But all too often, it seems that creativity is beaten out of children in favour of learning facts. Nothing wrong with learning facts, of course (see above), but fixed facts do get in the way of unfixed possibilities. Children should be encouraged to be curious, to think independently and to explore the boundaries of the possible with child-like (as opposed to childish) questioning. Art, creative writing, board games - all are great ways of encouraging creativity. But science and technology subjects are also full of the need to solve problems (How might you prove this theory? How could you overcome this physical obstacle?)

 

Creative thinking is as much about culture as anything, a culture where certainty (even in science) is questioned and people are always encouraged to look for alternative explanations.  A convinced flat-earther can be asked to disprove the theories that indicate the Earth is round. A class studying Darwinian evolution might be asked to consider the epigenetic theories that appear to support Lamarckism. After all, knowledge is what we know today, but not necessarily what we will know tomorrow. Just ask Newton.

 

Problem solving takes imagination. But it also takes adaptability. In an uncertain world where everything seems to be changing all the time, the ability to think flexibly is important. This may involve quickly grasping a new concept. Or it may involve assessing new evidence and, as a result, changing your opinion.

 

The ability to think flexibly takes empathy (to see the other person’s point) and humility (to accept you may be wrong). It is perhaps the hardest skill to acquire, as it can involve a loss of face, an acceptance that you have been wrong. But it is when people are fixed in their opinions and refuse to consider alternatives that creativity dies.

 

 

Educating children for the future

Numeracy, memory, character, emotional intelligence and creativity: these are five key pillars of employability. Only one of these involves recalling large numbers of facts.  And with AI set to revolutionise the way we work, the way we discover things and the way we use information, we should be looking closely at how children are educated.

 

Schools today need to move from teaching academic knowledge to cultivating and quantifying the skills most valued by employers. Memory is still important. But huge quantities of facts are available outside textbooks at the click of a mouse. The skill is choosing the relevant (and accurate) facts. The ability to recall (or even know) information is no longer the essential skill it was.

 

In addition, the curriculum should be taught in a way that nurtures the skills valued by employers. Teamwork, leadership and communication are just as important as analysing information. Self-motivation is an essential attribute. Creativity and problem solving - thinking about what might be rather than what is – is the mindset that needs to be encouraged.

 

To change education in this way will take a leap of faith. But without it, the UK’s most valuable assets, its children, will fail to thrive in a new world where school-learned information counts for even less than it does today.

 

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Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Caiaimage/Chris Ryan