EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As scientific understanding and artificial intelligence leap forward, many professions—such as law, accounting, animation, and medicine—are changing in dramatic ways. Increasingly, these advances allow non-experts and machines to perform tasks that were previously in the sole domain of experts, thus turning expert-quality work into a commodity. With new technologies displacing workers across many fields, what will be the likely impact on the teaching profession? Will machines replace teachers?
Despite the hype and fear, machines are unlikely to replace teachers anytime soon. Rather, they are poised to help overcome several structural barriers that make it difficult to ensure that an effective teacher reaches every student.
School systems face a number of challenges, including teacher shortages, a lack of clear methods for developing high-quality teachers, and teacher burnout and attrition, to name a few. And even the best teachers struggle to address the diverse learning needs of their students or find time to focus on developing students’ deeper learning and noncognitive skills amidst pressures to cover core instruction.
Innovations that commoditize teacher expertise by simplifying and automating basic teaching tasks provide school leaders with new options for addressing three challenging circumstances:
- When schools lack expert teachers. Innovations that commoditize teacher expertise can go a long way in amplifying the effectiveness of the existing teacher workforce. Research shows that putting high-quality curriculum and online-learning resources in the hands of less-effective teachers can boost students’ educational outcomes.
- When expert teachers must tackle an array of student needs. Even high-quality teachers struggle, at times, to address the varied learning needs of their students. A common response is for schools to train teachers how to differentiate instruction. But implementing differentiated instruction with fidelity on a day-today basis can be difficult. Fortunately, computers can provide many aspects of basic content and skills instruction, empower teachers with better assessment data, provide learning resource recommendations, and give teachers more time and energy to work one-on-one and in small groups with students.
- When expert teachers need to teach more than academic content. A growing body of research shows that deeper learning and noncognitive skills play a significant role, alongside content mastery, in determining students’ academic and life outcomes. Innovations that commoditize teacher expertise give teachers greater capacity to focus on helping students develop these important skills.
Rather than seeing technological progress as a threat, teachers and education leaders should take advantage of the many ways technology can enhance their work. Computers, non-experts, and expert teachers each have comparative advantages that complement one another. Computers are ideal for targeting students’ basic content and skill gaps and providing teachers with real-time assessment data. Non-experts, such as paraprofessionals and novice teachers, provide the human touch needed for supervising and motivating students and troubleshooting nonacademic learning difficulties. Expert teachers carry out sophisticated teaching tasks, including developing new instructional approaches, diagnosing and addressing students’ nonacademic learning difficulties, providing feedback on oral and written communication, fostering an achievement-oriented classroom culture, and talking with parents about students’ individual education plans.
Great teachers are the most valuable resource in our education system. And expert teachers’ work is unlikely to be reduced to standardized procedures or automated algorithms anytime soon. Yet, ensuring that every student has access to excellent teaching is not a trivial task. Fortunately, as innovations simplify and automate distinct aspects of teaching, both effective and less-effective teachers will see their capabilities enhanced by computers. This pattern provides a key insight for practitioners and policymakers who are working to guarantee that all students have access to high-quality teaching.
