New Delhi: With artificial intelligence (AI) making homework, research and even complex concepts accessible at the click of a button, teachers today face a new challenge — how to ensure that technology enhances learning without replacing the process of thinking.As schools increasingly bring AI into classrooms, educators are using it as a learning aid, helping students explore ideas and brainstorm, understand difficult concepts and access information, while encouraging curiosity, reasoning and independent thought.But this new-age classroom also demands a new kind of vigilance. Teachers are increasingly having to monitor the misuse of AI, from students submitting AI-generated assignments to relying on it for answers without understanding the subject. Teachers’ role, therefore, is evolving beyond simply delivering knowledge. They are also teaching students when to use AI, how to question what it produces, and when to put the technology aside and think for themselves.Teachers are also using AI to prepare presentations, look for new activities and explore different ways of explaining concepts. Pallavi Sharma, principal of Mamta Modern School, said teachers were increasingly exploring AI to improve how to present materials. “Teachers can also use it to find new kinds of activities and explore pedagogical methods that could make teaching more interesting,” she said.The same technology, however, has made it difficult to determine how much of an assignment represents a student’s own effort. Sharma said teachers were finding that children were using AI to do homework, write letters and prepare projects.One response has been to bring more assessment back into the classroom. “In classrooms, teachers can see whether children are able to do things on their own,” Sharma said. Teachers are also framing more analytical questions for projects, she added.That shift is putting greater emphasis on a skill educators consider increasingly important: critical thinking. When information is instantly available and AI can produce a polished answer within seconds, students need to know how to evaluate evidence, identify bias, verify information and distinguish fact from opinion rather than accepting an answer at face value.Meenu Kanwar, principal of Amity International School, Mayur Vihar, said technology had made knowledge far more accessible and opened up opportunities beyond textbooks. “Students have far more career choices, professional guidance and opportunities to learn beyond textbooks,” she said, adding that National Education Policy also emphasises creativity, critical thinking and practical skills.For educators, however, there are limits to what even sophisticated technology can provide. Jas Elanjikal, principal of St Michael’s Senior Secondary School, Pusa Road, said, “AI can solve problems in seconds and give us the most logical answers. But a big question for students is whether it can teach judgment?” Decisions involving empathy, integrity, compassion and responsibility, he said, cannot simply be reduced to data. While AI can provide information, “only humans can give wisdom”.That is why educators largely see the way forward not as keeping AI out of classrooms, but teaching children to use it with boundaries. “It is a wonderful tool if it is used as a tool,” Sharma said. “It should not be used to replace a teacher or replace the hard work that needs to be done, or creativity.”
