From Panic to Professional Judgement: What is AI really teaching us about teacher education?

What I heard in the room

What struck me most was how grounded the discussion was. In an education landscape that often swings between panic and hype Liz shared early findings from research into the use of TeachMateAI within a Primary PGCE programme that felt measured, practical and honest. The headline for me? AI doesn’t replace professional judgement, it exposes it. Trainees quickly realised that AI-generated lesson materials were only as good as the context they provided. Even specifying a year group didn’t guarantee developmental appropriateness. Outputs were useful starting points, not finished products. They needed adaptation, scrutiny and professional insight.

The trainees weren’t outsourcing their thinking; they were testing, refining and shaping it. Used well, AI helped them to generate activities, model texts and creative prompts, saving time and mental energy. But it wasn’t effortless. Poor prompts produced generic results. Editing took time. Sometimes it would have been quicker to do it themselves. That honesty mattered.

Subject Knowledge, Skills and the role of Training

Another theme that stayed with me was the relationship between AI and subject knowledge. Trainees valued AI for checking information quickly and generating ideas, yet they were alert to the risk of dependency. Some expressed concern that over-reliance could weaken their ability to respond spontaneously in the classroom or retain key content knowledge  This is not an argument against AI integration. Rather, it is an argument for structured and careful integration. Strong subject knowledge and retrieval practice cannot (and must not!) be outsourced to technology. They must remain foundational to the person leading the education. What Liz’s research suggests is that AI works best when it complements expertise, rather than compensates for its absence.

Prompt engineering emerged as an unexpected but critical professional skill. The ability to ask precise, context-rich questions and iteratively refine outputs became central to effective use. Alongside this sat the need for rigorous fact-checking and quality assurance. These skills are not technical add-ons; they are emerging competencies within teacher education.

For schools and universities alike, this raises strategic questions. How do we embed AI literacy without reducing professional autonomy? How do we support staff development so that AI enhances rather than erodes subject confidence? And how do we ensure quality assurance mechanisms evolve alongside technological change? These are leadership questions as much as pedagogical ones.

Why this matters for Schools, FE and HE

As I left the workshop what stayed with me most was the maturity of the trainee responses. There was no blind enthusiasm and no defensive rejection. Instead, there was professional judgement in action. Prompting carefully. Fact-checking outputs. Weighing up efficiency against quality. Adapting resources for real children in real classrooms. That balance, between curiosity and caution, is exactly what responsible AI integration should look like.

From my perspective on the advisory board, this is precisely the kind of work the Institute must continue to champion. The question isn’t whether AI will be present in schools. It already is. The real question is whether teachers are supported to use it critically, ethically and contextually. If we embed AI literacy in teacher education with clarity and rigour, we strengthen the profession. If we leave it to informal experimentation, we risk inconsistency and erosion of confidence.

What I felt in that room was not disruption, but evolution. A profession thinking carefully about how to harness new tools without losing its core. And that gives me real optimism, not just for AI in schools, but for the professionalism of the educators leading the way.

If you are interested in more of this research please follow the link here : https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/new-study-shows-ai-enhances-teacher-development/

Warmest wishes,

Miri