Tag Archives: new study

Join our new UK study on teaching AI ethics and sustainability in lower secondary school

Post Syndicated from Diana Kirby original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/join-our-new-uk-study-on-teaching-ai-ethics-and-sustainability-in-lower-secondary-school/

Are you a computing teacher in England, Scotland, or Wales who works with 11- to 14-year-olds and is interested in how young people learn about AI ethics and sustainability? 

The Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre is launching an exciting new research study, and we would love you to get involved.

Two learners in a computing classroom.

In this study, we will explore teaching about the impacts of AI on people, the environment, and society. Our aims for the study are to:

  • Investigate the opportunities and challenges of teaching about AI ethics and sustainability in secondary computing lessons
  • Identify pedagogical approaches for developing students’ ethical reasoning, critical thinking, and agency in relation to AI tools
Register here

The study involves attending two in-person workshops in Cambridge, co-designing and teaching a unit of work, and taking part in evaluation activities such as surveys and interviews. Where necessary, we can offer support with the costs of attending the workshops, such as travel, accommodation, and supply cover.

Why focus on AI ethics and sustainability?

According to a recent report, in the UK more than half of 8- to 17-year-olds use AI tools, and as these systems become an increasingly significant part of everyday life, helping young people to critically evaluate their impact is vital.

We recently conducted a scoping literature review to explore what ethical concepts are covered by AI literacy interventions for lower secondary students (11- to 14-year-olds). This work has been accepted for publication at the Frontiers in Education conference, which is taking place in October.

In this work, we used the 10 principles set out in UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence as a framework for analysis of the ethical concepts covered by the interventions.

UNESCO’s AI ethics principles
UNESCO’s AI ethics principles

Our research showed that when AI ethics is taught to lower secondary students, interventions tend to focus most on concepts such as fairness and privacy. For example, multiple activities explored the important issue of algorithmic bias, teaching students about the causes of bias (such as training AI systems with small or unrepresentative datasets) and discussing real-world examples of bias in AI. 

However, we found that other ethical concepts, such as proportionality and governance, are not often taught. And while a few interventions featured the theme of sustainability, we found that only one directly taught students about the environmental impact of AI itself.

Our new study aims to help address this gap by supporting young people to explore the social and ethical impact of AI tools from a sustainability perspective. Teachers will use real-world examples to engage their students in discussion and ethical reasoning. We hope the findings will support more computing teachers to teach about AI ethics in their lessons, and help students to think critically about the use of AI tools.

Register here

What does the study involve?

We are using a design-based research approach to work collaboratively with teachers to co-design a unit of lessons focused on AI ethics and sustainability. 

In a computing classroom, two young children look at a computer screen.

Participating in the study will involve:

  1. Attending two in-person professional development and design workshops in Cambridge (one in early December 2026 and one during the 2027–28 school year)
  2. Delivering the co-designed lessons in your classroom (in early 2027 and the spring of  2028)
  3. Taking part in evaluation activities such as surveys, classroom observations, and interviews

How can I join the study?

If you teach computing at lower secondary level (Years 7–9 or S1–S3) in England, Scotland, or Wales and would like to help shape the way we teach young people about ethical issues around AI, we would love to hear from you. Please register your interest via the form below.

http://rpf.io/sage-application

If you have any questions about the project, please email [email protected].

The post Join our new UK study on teaching AI ethics and sustainability in lower secondary school appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Join our new study on AI and data-driven computing in UK primary classrooms

Post Syndicated from Bobby Whyte original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/join-our-new-study-on-ai-and-data-driven-computing-in-uk-primary-classrooms/

Are you a primary school teacher in England, Scotland or Wales interested in AI and data science and how students learn about AI and data in computing?

The Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre is starting an exciting new research project investigating how to teach about AI and data in the primary computing classroom, and we would like you to get involved.

The study will look at:

  • How AI and data-driven computing is currently taught (e.g. using Machine Learning for Kids, Google’s Teachable Machine)
  • What key ideas about AI and data that young people need to understand
  • How young people make sense of working with data in computing
Register here

The study involves attending a workshop in Cambridge, co-designing a unit of work, and then teaching it. Where necessary, we can reimburse you for reasonable expenses, such as supply cover, travel, and accommodation.

A teacher assisting a young person with a coding project.

Our aim for the study is to understand how primary school teachers approach teaching about data-driven technologies, and to find suitable methods for building young people’s confidence in working with data in computing lessons.

What is data-driven computing?

Research has suggested that new data-driven technologies such as AI and machine learning (or ML) require a different approach to teaching about problem-solving in the computing classroom. Instead of defining a set of rules (e.g. if-then-else statements, or a rule-based approach), learners must instead collect lots of data to train a model (a data-driven approach) such as using Google’s Teachable Machine to classify image data.

For educators and resource developers, we still lack a clear understanding of how to teach young people about how rule-based and data-driven systems differ, how we can talk about them, and how we develop young people’ mental models. We hope this study will help us to find practical ways for primary teachers to build young people’s understanding of AI data in the primary computing classroom.

What does the study involve?

If you teach at primary level (Years 4, 5 and 6 or P5–P7) in England, Scotland or Wales and are keen to shape how we teach young people about data-driven computing, we invite you to join our new study.

Register here

As part of the study, you will attend a workshop with us in Cambridge to co-design a series of data-driven computing lessons to teach in your classroom.

A young learners in the classroom

Following the workshop, you will teach the unit of work in your classroom and we will observe one of your lessons and interview you about your experiences.

How can I take part?

If you are interested in taking part, register your interest by clicking the link below:

Register here

If you have any questions about the project, you can email [email protected].

The post Join our new study on AI and data-driven computing in UK primary classrooms appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.