Attended the NL Tech Week: Teacher professional development – What does the teacher need regarding AI?

Posted on by Koen

In the context of June ‘AI in Education month’ we attended the event on Teacher professional development – What does the teacher need regarding AI? As the event was organised by SURF in collaboration with SIG AIED, NLAIC, NOLAI, Kennisnet it also offered an opportunity to be informed about the key players in the NL AI in education scene and hear about related SIGs and relevant newsletters.

The mission and organisation of The National Education Lab AI (NOLAI) project were presented in more detail by its director, Inge Molenaar. With its budget of eighty million euros specifically for a lab focused on AI in primary and secondary education the lab represents the largest public investment globally in the field of AI and education.

Co-creation is central in the project’s vision by addressing AI development in Education in collaboration with schools, researchers and companies


Its academic programme has Five focus areas:

  1. Pedagogical-didactic principles
  2. Professionalization of teachers
  3. Technical AI in education
  4. Data and infrastructure
  5. Embedded ethics

In his presentation associate lector ICT at Ixperium.nl, Pierre Gorissen, addressed the issue of AI in Education and in that context suggested some additions to the set of competences described in the NL Framework teacher competences for Education and ICT:

  • Is aware that search engines,
    social media and content platforms could make use of algorithms and
    artificial intelligence to tailor results
    to the individual user;
  • has knowledge of the capabilities of the use of algorithms and artificial
    intelligence to monitor and
    support the learning process of
    students;
  • teaches students how to deal with ethical issues related to
    collecting and use of data,
    algorithms and artificial intelligence

He also gave an overview of some related current opportunities for professional development.

And shared some characteristics of effective teacher professional development based on (Van Veen et al., 2010):

  • Practice-based and integrated into actual work processes
  • Teacher ownership;
  • Active and inquiry-based learning;
  • Together with colleagues;
  • Authentic learning experiences;
  • Embedded and embedded in policy and organisation;
  • Longer duration (time for experimentation and reflection);
  • Workplace support.

McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting Educational Design Research. New York, NY: Routledge.

Van Veen, Zwart, Meirink & Verloop, 2010

Leave a Reply