🔍 Key Applications of AI in Singaporean Schools

1. Administrative Automation

  • Use Cases: Report generation, procurement specs, email automation, creating packing lists, policy summaries, and comparison of vendor proposals.
  • Tools Used: ChatGPT, FormSG AI builder, PearChat, Transcribe (for meeting minutes), and Canva integrations.
  • Impact: Massive time savings, especially for tasks like procurement, document drafting, and report analysis.

2. Teaching and Lesson Planning

  • Uses:
    • Summarizing MOE documents and long lesson plans.
    • Creating presentation slides and rubrics.
    • Brainstorming student engagement activities (e.g., visual prompts for essays, scenarios for climate change).
  • Benefits:
    • Frees up teachers’ time for deeper student engagement.
    • Offers real-time support for content creation and feedback.
    • Enhances differentiation in instruction.

3. Student Learning and Cognitive Development

  • Concerns:
    • Over-reliance on AI may stunt thinking and creativity.
    • Loss of foundational skills like writing and problem-solving.
    • Risk of students skipping learning steps if AI gives full answers.
  • Innovative Uses:
    • Role-playing simulations (e.g., bioethics debates, religious dialogue).
    • Math reasoning with tools like Snorkel (think-aloud problem-solving).
    • Science scenario-building to discuss sustainability and energy.

4. Ethical & Security Considerations

  • Concerns:
    • Data privacy when using external AI platforms.
    • MOE constraints on uploading sensitive or identifiable information.
    • The “black box” nature of AI responses—teachers unsure how conclusions are derived.
  • Reflections:
    • Teachers feel responsible for framing prompts and outputs carefully.
    • Need for internal, sandboxed AI environments that align with MOE policy (e.g., PET).

5. Equity, Access & Professional Learning

  • Professional Development: Teachers are informally learning from one another—many explore AI on their own or through peer sharing.
  • Access & Buy-in:
    • Some admin staff hesitant or unfamiliar with AI tools.
    • Schools are navigating between encouraging innovation and maintaining safeguards.
    • Students’ varied access and prompt literacy are noted as equity issues.

🧠 Pedagogical Shifts Observed

  • From content delivery to problem-based learning using AI as a scenario engine.
  • Blending traditional skill development (like essay writing) with AI feedback loops.
  • Using AI to simulate complex reasoning—bioethics, social studies, religious diversity, etc.
  • Reframing teacher identity: Teachers become curators, prompt engineers, and learning designers.

âś… Recommendations Emerging from the Conversation

  1. Create sandboxed, school-approved AI environments for secure use (e.g., guided version of ChatGPT for students).
  2. Invest in prompt literacy training for both teachers and students.
  3. Develop rubrics and tools to guide appropriate AI use in lesson planning, student assignments, and ethics.
  4. Encourage cross-role collaboration—teachers, admin, ICT, and HODs sharing AI applications and guiding principles.
  5. Use AI to free up time, enabling more focus on creativity, SEL, and real-world problem solving.