Well-MeasurED: Getting AI Right in Schools with Professor Rose Luckin
Table of contents
Table of Contents
The moment of truth for AI: what is working, what is failing, and what is next.
The pressure on schools to act on AI has been building in recent years. The question of what that action should look like, and how to know whether it is working, has proved considerably harder to answer. Professor Rose Luckin has been working on that question since long before most schools were asking it, including in a current research partnership with Education Perfect.
Luckin brings more than 30 years of research at the intersection of AI and education to this conversation with Dr Jill McGuire and James Santure. She examines what the research, including her own, shows about where AI is truly helping in schools and where it’s falling short.
A central theme in this discussion is cognitive offloading: students using AI in ways that bypass the thinking that produces durable learning. Luckin’s reading of the evidence is that the difference between AI that builds student capability and AI that erodes it is largely determined by what educators ask students to do with it.
On equity, Luckin’s own research has found that AI adoption is currently widening the gap between more and less advantaged communities, though that does not need to be the case. Her practical advice for school leaders draws on that finding: learn fast, and act more slowly.
“This moment in time is a moment when we as humans need to get a lot more intelligent.” โ Professor Rose Luckin
What this episode covers:
- The difference between beneficial and disadvantageous cognitive offloading, and how task design shapes which one students engage in.
- Where AI is already helping in schools: scaling feedback and surfacing insights that support teachers to know their students better.
- What the research shows about AI and equity, and why access alone does not guarantee fairer outcomes.
- A practical framework for school leaders navigating AI decisions, including four dimensions to work through before committing to a tool or approach.
- Why AI detection tools are unreliable and what school leaders can focus on instead to maintain student trust.
- What getting AI right looks like in schools, and what the version most worth avoiding looks like.
About the guest
Professor Rose Luckin is Professor Emerita of Learner-Centred Design at UCL’s Knowledge Lab and founder of Educate Ventures Research. With over 30 years of research at the intersection of AI and education, she is one of the most cited voices in the field globally. She is the author of Machine Learning and Human Intelligence and AI for School Teachers, and her Beyond the Hype report and subsequent Artificial Disadvantage study are widely referenced by educators and policymakers navigating AI adoption in schools.
Meet the hosts
Dr Jill McGuire and James Santure host Well-MeasurED, Education Perfect’s interview series exploring what the evidence says about teaching, learning and the tools schools use. Jill leads Learning Innovation at EP; James leads Product Impact. Both bring years of experience working alongside teachers and school leaders across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Dr. Jill McGuire
Group Head, Learning Innovation, Education Perfect
James Santure
Head of Product Impact, Education Perfect
Resources
Our Impact
Explore the evidence and research behind Education Perfectโs impact on learning.
Further resources
Don’t have time to listen to the entire episode?ย Read the blog diving into this episode’s key takeaways.
More from Well-MeasurED
Professor Pamela Snow is one of several guests in the Well-MeasurED interview series exploring what we know works to improve student outcomes, and what doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Find the other episodes here.
