Ahead of BETT 2026, London’s global education summit
By Dawn Taylor
Founder and Director, Challenge Innovate Grow | Author of “Behind the Algorithm”
🌍 Bett 2026: A Turning Point for Global Education
As the world’s largest education technology event, Bett UK 2026 in London promises to be more than a showcase of tools — it will be a stage for the deep, system-wide rethinking of education in the age of AI. This year’s sessions will probe the biggest questions in learning: not just what students need to know, but how they should think.
One of those critical sessions comes from Dawn Taylor, whose writing and leadership are reshaping how schools view pedagogy in an AI-rich world. Her talk — “The Changing Role of a Teacher in the Age of AI” — sets the tone for a new era of teaching.
📘 The Conditions of Learning Have Changed
For centuries, the basic structure of learning remained unchanged: teachers held the knowledge, students received it, and understanding was measured through recall, repetition, or application. It made sense in a world where information was scarce, slow, and stable.
The internet changed that — and now, AI is accelerating the transformation. We no longer teach students to find information; now, we must teach them to judge it.
Generative AI doesn’t just retrieve answers — it produces them: structured, polished, and confident. Yet behind this confidence often lies flawed logic, hallucinated facts, or unchecked bias. In this world, the learner’s job is no longer to build from scratch — it is to critically evaluate what already exists.
This changes everything.
🧠 Teaching Thinking — Not Just Content
Whether students use ChatGPT, Google, or a textbook, the challenge is the same:
They must learn to think, not just to answer.
Surface fluency is no longer enough. Learners must question, compare, test, and justify. Can they defend an idea? Challenge it? Improve it?
These cognitive skills don’t develop by chance. They must be taught explicitly. Teachers must model critical thinking, make their own reasoning visible, and build time for students to practise — regularly and across all subjects.
This is not a “soft skill”; it’s now a survival skill.
🔍 Making Learning Visible
A polished final paragraph tells us little about how a student got there — and with AI, that problem is even worse.
What teachers need is visibility into the process:
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What choices were made?
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What reasoning was used?
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What doubts were raised?
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What sources were trusted — and why?
Well-designed tasks allow us to see these decisions. When students compare alternatives or revise weak reasoning, we learn far more about their understanding than any final draft can reveal.
🧠 Developing Judgement in the AI Age
AI can be articulate — but not always accurate. So the most important skill now is judgement:
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Can learners verify a claim?
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Do they trust cautiously?
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Can they explain why they believe something is true?
These are the building blocks of 21st-century intelligence.
✏️ What This Means for Everyday Teaching
When learning conditions shift, the work of teachers must shift too. But this doesn’t diminish their role — it deepens it.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
1. Tasks Must Reveal Thought, Not Just Output
AI can generate both answers and “reflections.” One piece of writing no longer proves understanding.
Teachers need multiple checkpoints: quick comparisons, source checks, audio notes, collaborative discussions — ways to make thinking visible across the process.
2. Learning Behaviours Must Include Verification
Verification isn’t optional. It must be embedded in daily habits.
Routines like “show your source” or “what’s a counter-view?” help students build intellectual honesty and deeper confidence.
3. Assessment Must Capture Process, Not Just Product
A single score on a final draft won’t do. We need formative evidence: annotations, reasoning logs, short reflections — all of which offer richer insight into how students think.
4. AI Must Be Acknowledged Transparently
Used well, AI becomes part of the learning journey — not a shortcut.
Students should state when they used it, how, what worked, and what didn’t. This reflection belongs in the assessment evidence, not hidden behind the scenes.
It’s Not Just a Teacher’s Job — It’s a System-Wide Shift
AI hasn’t replaced the teacher — it has amplified the parts of teaching that are most human:
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Judgement
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Understanding
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Meaning-making
But no teacher can do this alone. Systems must align. Governments, curriculum bodies, school leaders, and assessment authorities must work together to ensure what we teach, what we assess, and what we value all support the same vision.
Join the Conversation at Bett 2026
Session: The Changing Role of a Teacher in the Age of AI
When: 21-23 January
Where: Teaching & Learning Theatre, Bett UK 2026, London
Dawn will share practical frameworks and examples for how schools can adapt today — with clarity, realism, and purpose.
AI has changed what it means to learn.
Now we must decide: how do we teach in this new world — and what kind of thinking do we want it to create?