Teaching and Learning

What is the SAAS approach to Artificial Intelligence in the classroom?

Since its founding in 1983, SAAS has defined itself as a community of intentional iteration: an independent school as committed to delivering an education relevant to its students’ lived experience as it is to pushing the boundaries of teaching and learning.

In the winter of 2022, as secondary schools, colleges, and universities across the country were scrambling to implement policies to curb the use of ChatGPT in the classroom, SAAS got curious. Guided by a student-centered approach to teaching and a curriculum rooted in a Culture of Performance and innovation, our administrators and teachers prioritized the question, “How will this technology both enhance and complicate our students’ ability to think critically and creatively?” We asked, “What does it mean to use Artificial Intelligence wisely?” rather than taking either a “lock-it-and-block-it” approach or a utopian “techno-futurism” approach, as expressed by educator John Spencer in this video.

How Will Schools Respond to the AI Revolution? - John Spencer

Generative AI is not only about ChatGPT, Grammarly, or the autofill/autocorrect feature in an email or document. It also has the potential to impact learning and the capability to serve as an aid for personal organization and executive functioning. Helping students and families to understand the wise use of AI is a key topic for all of us as we consider what role artificial intelligence will play in our school and professional lives. We’re sharing with families this resource guide for how SAAS approaches AI and how you can engage with your students about these important issues.

What We Believe

The landscape of artificial intelligence presents a moving target, and we can expect new capabilities to be unlocked at a blistering pace. When it comes to using any new technology, SAAS strives to make decisions based on principles that are as widely applicable as possible, not resting solely on the features of any particular tool that exists at the current moment. Our teachers have always made decisions about adopting or forgoing new technologies informed by the learning goals of their curriculum, the guiding principle to Know the Kid, and the school’s mission to Question, Imagine, and Create in order to Contribute to a Changing World.

Generative AI technology is the newest, but not the first or the last, technology that has the potential to unlock new capabilities for our students and also the potential to subvert learning goals. We believe it is natural, under those circumstances, that different teachers will come to different conclusions about its use, just as they have done in the past for calculators, laptops, cell phones, smart boards, and other technologies.

In making decisions about technology use, our teachers start by considering the impact on student learning. With regard to ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, for example, we are:

mindful of and talking about the true capabilities, limitations, and ethical issues of different technologies as they pertain to different disciplines;
keeping teaching and learning priorities at the center of our decision-making when it comes to designing individual assignments and assessments, as well as designing our curriculum as a whole;
paying close attention to the intersection between technology use and accommodations.

How do AI tools fit in with our teaching and learning priorities?

SAAS has always paid close attention to the relationship between the what and how of adolescent brain development and the delivery of our curriculum. We know that the pre-teen and teenage brain is wired to adapt and respond to new situations, while at the same time, it thrives in a setting of routine and stability. Students and families can expect their teachers to engage in explicit direction regarding the use of AI technology in their particular classes, and we will collectively look for ways for AI technology to strengthen the school’s five essential teaching and learning priorities:

Critical Thinking

We want students to make connections, to engage in the process instead of focusing only on the product, and to ask questions that guide their inquiry. When we focus on critical thinking, we can identify ways that generative AI can support student learning and establish clear expectations based on ways that AI could hinder learning.

Risk-Taking and Mistake-Making

We want students to know they can and should make mistakes during practice as an essential part of learning. When students know that mistakes are expected and even encouraged, they feel more willing to take risks and will come to understand how and when generative AI tools might help or subvert their intentions.

Equitable Approach to Grading

An equitable approach to grading makes learning targets visible to students and encourages a growth mindset. When students know the reasons for learning and know they have multiple opportunities to demonstrate that learning, they feel motivated and can better understand the rationale–the if, when, where, and how–for incorporating generative AI tools in their learning.

the Culture of Performance

The Culture of Performance asks students to demonstrate their learning for an audience, in contexts where tools such as AI might not be available or appropriate. Generative AI tools might support students, however, as they build skills and prepare for moments of authentic performance in which they are asked to combine disparate skills, think flexibly, and transfer their learning to a unique context.

Meta-Cognition as an Explicit Goal in Your Course

Students need to learn how to learn and how to develop the introspection to think about their learning. When we focus on teaching metacognition as an important practice, students become more engaged learners and can better decide for themselves if, when, where, and how to use generative AI tools to support them.

How can you engage with students and teachers on the topic of AI in the classroom?

Talk with Your Student!

Middle and Upper School students are already aware of (and use) generative AI technology. They are also savvy enough to recognize that there are many unanswered questions about the impact it will have on their futures. Kids are naturally asking about whether ChatGPT is a tool they can use to make their schoolwork easier. Our students are asking much bigger questions about the future they can expect and the relationship between their education, their daily educational tasks, and the "real world" where generative AI is already causing significant changes.

Students gain a lot from the perspective of all the trusted adults around them, and we would like to be asking questions together about how new technologies have impacted our lives professionally and personally, and learning from how we have engaged these new technologies in a wise way. We recommend that you ask your student(s) how they think AI technology can and should be used in daily life and learn how they may already be utilizing these tools. Here are some questions that were posed recently by Stanford University’s AI + Education Summit, which represent a wide range of issues relating to the use of AI in the classroom, the future of the workplace, equity, and inclusion, and the ethical implications of this technology.

Connect with Teachers!

Our teachers are actively considering the role and relevance of generative AI in our respective disciplines and at each grade level. We encourage you, as always, to connect with them as questions arise throughout the year.

We know that students need to develop instincts around “how” and “why” before they can begin to effectively incorporate generative AI into their learning practice, particularly with writing. SAAS believes that individual teachers are best equipped to determine what technologies work in their classrooms and for students. This means that you can expect to see different approaches and policies in different classes, as teachers make decisions informed by the specific learning objectives of their classes and by the school’s mission and guiding principles to Know the Kid and to foster an Inclusive Community that is accessible to all students.

Students may sometimes have “tech-free” moments to ensure that foundational skills in a class develop as they should. Some classes may ask students to forgo AI technology on assessments or assignments in order to help teachers accurately understand their students’ progress. Whatever the specific situation, SAAS is committed to preparing our students for College and Life. We believe that we have an obligation to engage with this new AI technology and to teach students how to use it effectively and ethically as a part of how we teach foundational skills and prepare students for various future paths and professions.

As is the case when incorporating any new and developing technology, our perspective on the use of AI as a tool for learning will and should evolve. SAAS teachers will continue to engage in learning on this topic as a faculty in the form of presentations by teacher-leaders, roundtable discussions, and sessions for sharing strategies for the use of AI tools in different disciplines. As we look for ways to use this technology in our classrooms, we will prioritize the idea of “vintage innovation” as defined by author John Spencer:

“Vintage innovation happens when we use old ideas and tools to transform the present. It’s not a rejection of new tools or new ideas. Instead, it’s a reminder that sometimes the best way to move forward is to look backward. Like all innovation, vintage innovation is disruptive. But it’s disruptive by pulling us out of the present tense and into something more timeless. Vintage Innovation is a both/and mindset. It’s the overlap of the ‘tried and true’ and the ‘never tried.’ It’s a mash-up of cutting-edge tech and old-school tools. It’s the overlap of timeless skills in new contexts.”

Our mission and guiding principles help us remain confident in our ability to adapt to any new technology. We will continue to prioritize student-centered learning, assessments that invite students to challenge, question, and create as they navigate ambiguity and prepare for a future defined by change.

We hope to host an Open Forum later this winter where parents can gather to share their questions, experiences, and predictions for how generative AI has and will continue to shape the workplace and education. Stay tuned for more information, and in the meantime, check out some of the resources we’ve been exploring on the topic of AI:

Greg Toppo and Jim Tracy, Running with Robots: The American High School’s Third Century (*This book was a SAAS Faculty summer reading option.)
David J. Gunkle, Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond
Ronald J. Brachman and Hector J. Levesque, Machines Like Us: Toward Common Sense with AI
W. Russell Neuman, Evolutionary Intelligence: How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
Eric Hudson, “Back to School with AI: Part 1: Make Sense of AI”
Listen - Freakonomics: How to Think About A.I. Archives

If you have any questions about our approach to AI in the classroom currently or in the future you’re welcome to reach out to Giselle Furlonge, Associate Head of School, and/or Alison Ray, Dean of Teaching & Learning.