AI Empowers Teacher Development and Upgrades Teacher Roles

Recently, the Ministry of Education and four other departments jointly issued the “AI + Education Action Plan” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”). This plan systematically addresses how to reaffirm the primary value of teachers under the support of intelligent technology and how to unleash teachers’ potential in the new human-machine collaborative landscape. Empowering education through artificial intelligence begins with empowering teachers, which is both a clear directive of the Action Plan and an inherent requirement for high-quality educational development in the intelligent era.

Accurate Understanding of the Requirements for Upgrading Teacher Roles

The overall requirements of the Action Plan emphasize accelerating the construction of a new form of intelligent education characterized by human-machine collaboration, virtual-real integration, and ubiquitous accessibility. This goal translates into three aspects in the field of teacher development:

Deep Restructuring of Teacher Work Methods: The focus of teachers’ roles will shift from knowledge transmission to learning design. The Action Plan clearly states, “Strengthen the application of intelligent teaching systems throughout the entire educational process before, during, and after class to reduce teachers’ burdens and increase efficiency.” This means that by 2030, intelligent technology will take on more standardized and repetitive tasks, allowing teachers to focus more on value guidance, teaching design, and personalized instruction, thus returning to the core mission of education.
Enhancement of Teachers’ Intelligent Literacy: The focus will shift from digital skills to human-machine collaboration. The Action Plan explicitly requires “improving the intelligent literacy and skills of a wide range of teachers,” aiming to fully stimulate teachers’ intrinsic motivation to innovate educational models using AI. This requirement further focuses on AI based on existing policies, gradually promoting the deepening and expansion of teachers’ literacy requirements from general digital skills to human-machine collaborative abilities.
Reform of Teacher Training and Evaluation: The professional threshold will shift from advocacy to institutional access. The Action Plan clearly states, “Promote reform in the training of normal university students” and “Include AI in teacher qualification examinations and certification content.” This means that intelligent literacy will transition from an advocated requirement to an institutional threshold. In the future, teachers will not only need to use AI but must also adapt to working alongside AI, finding their position and value within the triadic structure of “teacher-student-machine.”

Accelerating the Upgrade of Teacher Roles in the AI Era

In response to the above deployments, the Action Plan makes specific arrangements from three dimensions: teaching reform, capacity building, and institutional incentives.

Constructing a New Teaching Paradigm of Human-Machine Collaboration: This aims to shift teachers from knowledge authorities to learning architects. Classroom teaching is the main battlefield of teachers’ work and the core scene for AI to empower teacher development. The Action Plan explicitly states, “Explore human-machine collaborative teaching models, utilizing intelligent systems in teaching processes,” which includes supporting teachers in lesson preparation, assisting in learning situation analysis, and managing assignments. These measures aim to establish a new collaborative relationship between teachers and intelligent systems, with intelligent systems taking on more procedural tasks such as knowledge transmission, practice assessment, and data collection, while teachers focus on learning task design, cognitive guidance, and emotional encouragement. Additionally, the Action Plan proposes to “utilize intelligent technology to analyze classroom teaching behaviors, conduct AI evidence-based research practices, and develop teacher training models suitable for the intelligent era.” This indicates that AI will not only change how teachers teach but also reshape how they research.
Establishing Standards and Training Systems for Intelligent Literacy: This will promote teachers from being mere technology users to intelligent education designers. Whether teachers can adapt to the new teaching paradigm of human-machine collaboration depends significantly on their enhancement of intelligent literacy. The Action Plan provides systematic arrangements for this. In terms of training normal university students, the document clearly states, “Promote reform in the training of normal university students by incorporating knowledge of cutting-edge technologies like AI into the curriculum.” This means that the cultivation of intelligent literacy will shift from post-employment training to pre-employment training, ensuring that future teachers possess the basic abilities to work collaboratively with AI from the outset. In terms of standard setting, the document requires, “Develop standards for teachers’ intelligent literacy, clarifying the AI literacy skills teachers should possess,” which is a foundational project for promoting the upgrade of teacher roles. In terms of training implementation, the document requires “conducting tiered and categorized AI literacy training based on different job requirements,” which helps enhance the specificity and effectiveness of training.
Improving Incentive and Guarantee Mechanisms for Professional Development: A comprehensive upgrade of teacher roles requires not only capability support but also institutional incentives. The Action Plan provides supporting arrangements from aspects such as entry management, achievement incentives, resource guarantees, and pilot demonstrations. In terms of entry management, the document clearly states, “Include AI in teacher qualification examinations and certification content.” This measure serves as a guiding principle, indicating that understanding and utilizing AI will become a prerequisite for the teaching profession. In terms of achievement incentives, the document proposes to “establish intelligent education projects in national and provincial teaching achievement awards,” providing clear institutional recognition for teachers actively exploring intelligent teaching practices. In terms of resource guarantees, the document states, “Promote the deep and broad integration of AI and education,” allowing teachers to genuinely experience the convenience and effectiveness of intelligent technology in use, thus promoting a shift from passive adaptation to active mastery. In terms of pilot demonstrations, it proposes to “create future classrooms, future schools, future learning centers, and future training centers.” These deployments aim to explore replicable and scalable experiential models through pilot initiatives and demonstration leadership.

Key Focus Points for Upgrading Teacher Roles

Education is the source of talent supply, and teachers are key to talent cultivation. To ensure the effective implementation of the Action Plan, efforts should focus on the following three areas:

Leading with Normal Universities: Promote reform in training models to shape future teachers capable of mastering intelligent technology from the source. Normal universities are the backbone of teacher training and should play a demonstrative role in implementing the Action Plan. On one hand, they should quickly incorporate AI courses into normal university training programs, promote curriculum reforms, and integrate intelligent literacy training into various subject teaching methods, helping future teachers systematically grasp the basic principles of AI and educational application scenarios. On the other hand, they should establish a number of intelligent education training platforms, strengthening cooperation between schools and enterprises, allowing normal university students to practice human-machine collaborative teaching abilities in real or simulated intelligent teaching environments.
Supporting with Resource Platforms: Lower the application threshold for teachers, enabling every teacher to bridge the digital divide and achieve role transformation. Currently, there are significant differences in the application abilities of intelligent technology among teachers from different regions, schools, and age groups. Addressing this issue requires collaborative efforts from three levels: tool supply, training support, and resource allocation. In terms of tool supply, it is essential to consider teachers’ actual usage habits and teaching scenarios, building easy-to-use, stable, and secure intelligent teaching platforms that allow teachers to easily get started. The national platform has already provided an important foundation for this, and future efforts can continue to enrich intelligent teaching tools, providing one-stop services for teachers. In terms of training support, efforts should focus on enhancing the systematic and effective nature of training, accelerating the establishment of standards and curriculum frameworks for teachers’ intelligent literacy, continuously expanding the scope of teacher assessments, and reinforcing targeted training. In terms of resource allocation, particular attention should be paid to regional and inter-school differences, promoting partnerships between quality schools and weaker schools, encouraging backbone teachers to provide cross-school guidance, and fully leveraging the national platform to facilitate the dissemination and sharing of experiences in AI-enabled teaching innovation.
Ensuring Ethical Norms: Ensure that technology applications are safe and controllable, guiding the role upgrade in an education-centered direction. Although the application of AI has brought unprecedented convenience to education, it also poses significant risks. The Action Plan clearly states the need to adhere to the basic principle of intelligent benevolence, which must permeate the entire process of empowering teachers with AI. On one hand, it is necessary to establish comprehensive management norms covering all processes of AI educational applications, including establishing an evaluation and filing system for intelligent education-related products at the entry stage, a technical monitoring mechanism during operation, and a warning and response mechanism in risk management. On the other hand, it is crucial to continuously enhance teachers’ ethical awareness and judgment capabilities, incorporating AI ethics into the standards and training systems for teachers’ intelligent literacy, guiding teachers to scientifically understand and reasonably utilize intelligent technology, maintaining professional judgment and educational leadership, ensuring that technology empowerment aligns with the fundamental goal of nurturing students, and facilitating high-quality educational development.