Artificial intelligence is increasingly being embedded into many tools that students and teachers use daily, and experts say it’s important for educators to understand and engage with the technology so they can use it responsibly in their work and model appropriate use for students.
Nearly 7 in 10 math teachers surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center said they have not yet received professional development on using AI to teach that subject. Of those, a little more than a third said they don’t want to receive such training.
The most cited reason? They don’t think AI should be used to teach math to students, according to a nationally representative survey of 411 math teachers conducted in February.
“AI takes the thinking away from students and they think it is the answer to everything,” a math teacher in Wisconsin said in an open-ended response to the survey. “There should be LESS automation and MORE thinking.”
Similarly, a RAND report published in February found that math and elementary teachers are less likely to say they use AI tools or products for instructional planning or teaching than English/language arts, science, and secondary teachers.
Math teachers’ reluctance to try this emerging technology is not surprising, said Gail Burrill, a mathematics specialist in the math education program at Michigan State University and a former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Computer-assisted algebra and other algorithmic math tools have been around for a long time, but teachers “have been struggling with” how to integrate those technologies into the classroom, Burrill said.
One reason that some math teachers aren’t excited about AI is that teaching math often relies on drilling students on questions on worksheets, said Pat Yongpradit, chief academic officer of Code.org and the lead for the TeachAI initiative. With that model, students can easily use AI to answer questions, he said.
Another reason, Yongpradit said, is that current generative AI models still make a lot of mistakes with math, making teachers distrust the technology.
“Even when AI does get it right, it often fails to explain the steps it used to get the right answer,” he said. “This is a double whammy for the effectiveness of using AI in math instruction—math is not just about the right answer, it’s also about the process.”
One way to get buy-in from math teachers is to cast AI in a different light and show powerful use cases that make learning better, Yongpradit said.
Below is a chart with the other reasons why math teachers say they don’t want professional development on AI:
