On 22 May local time, the China National Academy of Educational Sciences (CNAES) delegation attended the event “Schools as Drivers of Innovation” held at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France. Dr. Li Yongzhi, President of the CNAES, delivered a keynote speech at the conference on behalf of the CNAES.
The theme of the meeting is the School+ network. This first meeting of the School + network will establish School+ as a catalyst to inspire innovation in classrooms, schools and policies; exchange on how schools are responding to new challenges and opportunities, in particular those coming from generative Artificial Intelligence (Al), to better understand its potential and limitations, and provide direction for future education policy research and practice; and co-design the way forward for identifying, aggregating and curating evidence-based and promising teaching and learning practices, so that schools expertise can be shared globally and taken to scale.
Dr. Li Yongzhi gave a keynote speech on generative artificial intelligence and the transformation of education. He pointed out: Firstly, generative AI will elevate the value of education from a knowledge-centric approach to one that prioritizes competencies. In the age of artificial intelligence, AI assistance is set to play an increasingly significant role in knowledge acquisition. With AI assistance readily available to students at any time, the competencies developed through knowledge acquisition will become increasingly valuable for students. Secondly, generative AI will transform teaching methods from focusing on scores to an approach driven by process data. AI technologies have made it possible to record, store, analyze, and provide feedback on the data of teachers and students in real time, especially behavioral data. The adoption of AI technologies will therefore bring about profound changes in teaching and learning methods. Thirdly, generative AI will reshape the relationship between teachers and students from a person-to-person relationship to a teacher-machine-student relationship. AI will not replace teachers. Instead, AI will massively empower teachers. This will reshape the traditional teacher-student relationship into a teacher-machine-student dynamic, creating a new educational landscape. Last but not least, generative AI will upgrade the teaching environment from traditional classrooms to digital learning spaces. With the aid of AI technologies, learning will transcend the constraints of time and space, allowing individuals to learn at their own convenience, anytime and anywhere. He concluded that in the face of an uncertain future, our best stance would be to embrace technology with open arms.
As the leader in the relevant research field in China, the CNAES was invited. More than 300 experts and scholars, Ministry of Education officials, primary and secondary school principals, teachers and student representatives from over 40 countries and international organisations attended the conference.
