On October 16th, Shanghai Normal University held a series of activities to celebrate its 70th anniversary. At the academic exchange meeting between Chinese and foreign university presidents, they discussed and reflected on the theme of Teacher Education in the AI Era: Challenges and Innovations.
In the era of AI, where does teacher education go from here? At the academic exchange meeting between Chinese and foreign university presidents, it is agreed that AI is only smart, but not intelligent. Artificial intelligence is the best tool for surpassing. Qian Xuhong, President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of East China Normal University, said that higher education should take a new path that emphasizes thinking, interdisciplinary, and intelligence.
Yuan Wen, the president of Shanghai Normal University, believes that artificial intelligence has always been a tool to assist teachers. Teachers teach more than just knowledge, yet AI has been unable to convey concepts of values to students and cultivate their social and emotional abilities. Yuan Wen said that teachers will not withdraw from the historical stage, but they need to actively seek change.
In the view of Fang Yonghao, Vice President of the Education University of Hong Kong, the main functions of teachers in the future will be adapted to become defenders of human dignity, supervisors and correctors of machine teaching
Carol Humphreys, President of Sophia University in the United States, stated in an exchange that despite the initial panic and concerns of many educational institutions about the potential negative impact of AI, such as plagiarism, students have widely accepted and utilized AI as a learning tool. However, currently only a few teachers use AI in their daily teaching, and most still have concerns about academic integrity. Sofia University is actively taking measures, including developing relevant policies, offering professional development courses, and integrating AI into some courses, to ensure that students can use this technology responsibly and cultivate the critical thinking skills they need in the AI era.
