In this special feature, Education Matters explores how AI is transforming assessment, pedagogy and wellbeing in Australian schools through insights from the classroom and the research community.
Artificial intelligence is embedded in education – it’s already reshaping classrooms, lesson planning, and assessment practices across Australia and beyond. But while the technology offers potential to ease teacher workloads and personalise learning, it also raises complex questions about ethics, equity, and the purpose of schooling.
Mr Chris Bush, a Victorian secondary school economics teacher currently on sabbatical through a Churchill Fellowship, has spent the past year visiting schools and education systems across the globe to investigate how AI is being used in classrooms. His motivation was deeply personal and professional.
“Teaching has become more and more challenging,” he says. “Students have more individual needs, and more than ever you feel like you’re failing – like you’re never humanly able to get to all the kids that you need to. Class sizes are rising, student needs are rising, and yet there’s no extra support coming.”
It was this sense – of being stretched too thin – that led Mr Bush to experiment with AI in his own classroom. He and his students co-developed a chatbot named Mitch, designed to act as a 24/7 tutor.
“We gave it some curriculum documents, some instructions, and the students helped shape how it responded. They wanted it to be more succinct, to use emojis, to connect concepts to their hobbies. It became this always-on tutor that they could access any time,” Mr Bush says.
“Never before have my students had 24/7 support. Mitch was there when I couldn’t be – and for some, that made all the difference.
The impact was immediate. “I saw their test scores improve, especially for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and EAL [English as an Additional Language] learners. Mitch could speak to them in their first language. I don’t speak Vietnamese or Farsi, but Mitch does. That kind of support was never possible before.”
While Mr Bush’s work highlights the classroom-level potential of AI, Dr Rebecca Marrone, a researcher in educational psychology at the University of South Australia, is examining its broader systemic impact, particularly on wellbeing and policy.
Her recent work includes reviewing EdChat, a curriculum-specific AI tool developed by the South Australian Department for Education.
“Teachers and students really enjoyed using the tool,” she says. “But they wanted more from it. It was designed to support academic content, but they were looking for broader support – something that could help with wellbeing, creativity, and engagement.”
South Australia’s early and proactive approach to AI, she says, has been key.
“When ChatGPT launched in 2022, the Education Minister [Mr Blair Boyer] and the Chief Executive of the SA Department for Education [Professor Martin Westwell] didn’t ban it. They put policies in place quickly and started developing their own tools. That’s made a big difference.”
One of the most complex and fast-evolving areas is assessment. Both Mr Bush and Dr Marrone agree that AI is forcing a fundamental rethink of how we evaluate student learning.
“Initially, the conversation was all about ethics and academic integrity,” Dr Marrone says. “And that makes sense – especially in high-stakes years like Year 11 and 12. But I think schools are starting to move beyond that. They’ve put policies in place – traffic light systems, for example, where green means AI use is allowed, yellow is use with caution, and red is banned. But that’s just the beginning.”
She believes AI offers a rare opportunity to assess skills that have traditionally been difficult to measure. “Some of my research is in creativity. How do we assess creativity in student writing? It’s really hard. But with AI, we’ve developed algorithms that can assess elements of creativity in near real-time. That means teachers can get immediate feedback and make informed, pedagogically sound decisions about how to support their students.”
This kind of feedback, she says, is not just faster – it’s more personalised.
“Historically, assessing creativity meant getting a researcher involved, which costs time and money. Now, AI can do it quickly and cheaply, and at scale. But it still allows for individualised feedback. That’s the key.”
Mr Bush has seen similar potential – but also the risks. “Students have been handed a powerful cheat code,” he says. “All the ways we used to assess learning – such as take-home essays, posters, presentations – can now be completed by AI to a high and increasingly undetectable level.”
He describes a global reckoning. “Teachers everywhere are saying, ‘The old ways of assessing don’t work anymore’. But it’s not just about changing the assessment. We’re being asked to change what schooling looks like. What do we focus on? What do we spend our time on with young people?”
In his travels overseas as part of the Churchill Fellowship, Mr Bush visited a school in Texas where students learn from AI tutors in the morning and work on passion projects in the afternoon.
“They compress their learning into a few hours a day, then spend the rest of the time working on real-world projects, such as starting businesses, or designing solutions to community problems. Each student has an AI tutor, and the human educators act as guides or coaches,” he says.
He sees enormous potential in this model, especially for project-based learning.
“In a traditional classroom, it’s impossible. One student wants to build a go-cart, another wants to grow tomatoes hydroponically, another wants to make a rocket ship. No teacher can support 25 different projects at once. But AI can.”
Dr Marrone also sees AI as a way to support student agency. “If you’ve got a class project and one student wants to build a rocket and another wants to make a go-kart, AI tools can help each of them pursue their passion. That kind of engagement is powerful – it drives curiosity and deeper learning.”
Still, Mr Bush is cautious. “AI is being treated as this balm that can fix teaching. And it can help. But we know how to improve education – reduce class sizes, lessen curriculum burden, provide psychological support. There’s no magical pot of gold coming to fix education, and that’s where AI steps in.”
He’s also concerned about the uneven rollout of AI policy across Australia.
“South Australia is leading the way. But in Victoria, the guidelines are vague and punitive. There’s no cohesive professional development. Private schools are jumping ahead, but public institutions are being hollowed out – not through lack of care, but through lack of funding.”
In contrast, countries like Estonia are treating AI as a national priority. “They’re saying the game has changed. We need to change how schooling looks and feels. We need to change the skills and attributes we give our graduates so they can thrive in a global marketplace.”
In addition to Estonia, Mr Bush’s Churchill Fellowship has taken him to the US, Canada, England, and Finland. He’s met with educators, policymakers, and technologists.
“There are pockets of excellence – states like North Carolina and Illinois are setting clear guidelines. But mostly, it’s a free-for-all. Teachers are grappling with this seismic shift, often without support.”
He’s seen assessment evolve in real time. “Some schools are moving toward oral interviews, class discussions, and critical thinking tasks. Teachers are asking students to explain their choices, to justify their reasoning. That’s great – but it’s hard to do with 28 students in a class.”
Dr Marrone sees AI as a valuable tool for reducing the burden of assessment, but not a replacement for human insight. “It can do the heavy lifting – flagging areas for improvement, summarising student work – but it’s the teacher who brings the nuance, the relationship, the context.”
Mr Bush builds on this, arguing that AI is pushing educators to rethink assessment from the ground up. “The old model – factory-style schooling, mass-produced assignments – is breaking down. We’re being asked to reimagine what assessment looks like. But meaningful, personalised assessment takes time – and that’s the one thing teachers don’t have.”
He’s also seen how AI can help level the playing field. “For my students who couldn’t afford tutoring, Mitch became a personalised AI tutor. That’s not just convenient – it’s a matter of fairness.”
Dr Marrone agrees, emphasising the importance of equitable design. “If we build these systems thoughtfully, they can adapt to individual needs at scale. That means access for all learners – not just those in well-resourced schools.”
Both stress that the future of AI in education must be shaped collaboratively. “We need the right voices in the room,” Dr Marrone says. “Teachers, students, researchers – everyone should be part of the conversation. That’s how we ensure these tools work with us, not against us.”
Mr Bush adds: “The AI conversation is forcing us to ask: what is the true value of teachers and education?
“Should it be knowledge transmission for a world that doesn’t exist, or nurturing young minds to thrive in a rapidly changing world?”
Mr Bush’s reflections on the emotional toll of teaching are echoed by many educators navigating post-COVID classrooms. “The demands on your empathy and your care have really increased,” he says.
“Burnout is an enormous factor. I love teaching, but in order to save myself, I needed to take a break. It’s become untenable.”
He’s not alone. Dr Marrone’s research also highlights the mental health implications of AI – not just for students, but for teachers.
“We’re looking at how these tools impact wellbeing,” she explains. “AI can help reduce workload, but it can also introduce new pressures. That’s why it’s so important to design these systems with teacher support in mind.”
Mr Bush believes AI can help restore some of the joy of teaching.
“If AI can take care of the repetitive tasks – such as report writing, marking, lesson planning – then teachers can focus on what really matters: building relationships, nurturing curiosity, having those meaningful conversations.”
He’s also optimistic about AI’s potential to make learning more engaging. “When students are working on projects they care about, they’re not just learning – they’re thriving. AI can help them pursue their passion. That’s the kind of learning that sticks.”
Dr Marrone agrees. “We’re at a moment in history where we’re asking, ‘What does it mean to be human?’. AI is forcing us to confront that question in education. What do we value? What do we want our students to become?”
For both experts, the answer lies in thoughtful, inclusive design. “We need to involve teachers, students, and communities in the conversation. Only then can we ensure that AI enhances education rather than distorting it,” says Dr Marrone.
