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DfE announce new AI tuition tools – an exciting opportunity

Following the recent Department for Education announcement, we reflect on the opportunities of AI tuition tools and highlight the important considerations to ensure all pupils receive the very best support

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  • Time to read: 4 minutes

Newly announced plans by the Department for Education (DfE) aim to pilot AI-powered tutoring tools for disadvantaged pupils

The Department for Education intends to support up to 450,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds through the development of AI tutoring tools. These will be developed by teachers alongside AI labs and tech companies and are planned to be available by the end of 2027. The announcement can be read here.

Tutor Trust welcomes this investment in tuition and is pleased to see that the government recognises the considerable power that tutoring has to address the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. As highlighted in the DfE press release, evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is clear about the strength of tuition as an intervention for supporting pupils, as demonstrated by our own randomised control trial conducted by the EEF, which found that pupils in receipt of our tuition made an additional three months of progress.

Tutor Trust and AI

The capabilities of AI in education are enormous, and Tutor Trust has long been aware that tuition that utilises AI tools could be transformative in improving the level of impact on the attainment of the young people we serve. Tutor Trust has already piloted various applications of AI in tuition, including a project centred on the use of ChatGPT to support lesson planning, which found that plans created with AI assistance were of a higher quality. This project was launched by Bain & Company and the Hg Foundation and can be read about here. Tutor Trust is actively searching for more opportunities to incorporate AI into our offer to improve outcomes for young people.

The future of AI and tutoring

Any plan to improve the access of tailored tuition to disadvantaged young people who otherwise would not be able to afford tutoring should be celebrated, but there are a few things that must be considered as these tools are developed.

Firstly, any AI tools which intended to be used by young people need to be safe and effective. It is reassuring that Education Secretary Bridget Philipson highlighted the importance of this in the announcement and the fact that these tools are being designed with input from teachers should mean that the pupil experience is being considered throughout development and rollout. This must remain central when testing and implementing these tools.

Secondly, and most importantly, AI tools can only be truly effective alongside meaningful face-to-face support. These tools should not be used as a replacement for tailored tuition from real educators. We know that the impact that we have on our pupils is, in large part, down to the high-quality, well-trained tutors who are able to act as role models for the young people they support. We know this because our pupils tell us.

It is nice to have 1:1 time outside of class to get help and focus on specific learning.”
Year 11 Tutoring Plus pupil
My tutor is a really good teacher and makes the lesson fun."
Year 11 science pupil

This is not the type of support which AI will ever be able to effectively replicate. Tutor Trust believes that AI tools have an important role to play in enhancing the quality of impactful in-person tutoring.

We believe that this announcement is a promising first step towards increasing access to high-quality tuition, and Tutor Trust look forward to seeing how this plan develops.

OAO

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