What teachers need to know now about GenAI

We begin by reviewing four frameworks covering teacher competencies for AI and GenAI in education as a whole – UNESCO (2024), Educause (2024), ISTE (2024), and Paradox Learning (2023, 2025).

This is part of a draft of an article I wrote with Phil Hubbard. He was the main writer of this part. In this paper, we are proposing a way in which teachers can organize their own professional development (PD) in the context of the rapid expansion of Generative AI. 
We call this  PD sustained integrated PD (GenAI-SIPD). Sustained because it is continuous and respectful of the other responsibilities and commitments teachers have; integrated because the PD activities are an integral part of what teachers do anyway; the teacher retains control of the PD process.

The full article is available as open access: 
Hubbard, Philip and Mathias Schulze (2025) AI and the future of language teaching – Motivating sustained integrated professional development (SIPD). International Journal of Computer Assisted Language Learning and Teaching 15.1., 1–17. DOI:10.4018/IJCALLT.378304 https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/article/full-text-html/378304

UNESCO (2024). The UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers begins with a chapter motivating the need for AI skills and knowledge and showing alignment with the more general UNESCO ICT Competency for Teachers Framework. The document covers six key principles, the organizational structure of the framework, and specifications for the three levels of teacher competency. The six key principles are based on humanistic considerations: 1) ensuring inclusive digital futures, 2) a human-centered approach to AI, 3) protecting teachers’ rights and redefining roles, 4) promoting trustworthy and environmentally sustainable AI, 5) ensuring applicability to all teachers, and 6) lifelong professional learning for teachers. The document also includes suggested implementation strategies and highlights the importance of adjusting the framework to fit local contexts.

The first of the three levels of teacher competency is Acquire. UNESCO states “The overall curricular goal in the ‘Acquire’ level is to support all teachers to reach a basic level of AI competency or literacy required by the teaching profession across varied contexts” (p. 28). Regarding the second level, Deepen, “The overall curricular goal in the ‘Deepen’ level is to support teachers to become fully competent teachers or master teachers in using AI” (p. 33). And for the third level, Create, “The curricular goal at the ‘Create’ level is to empower teachers who have sound AI knowledge and competency to become expert teachers and agents of change” (p. 38).

Educause (2024). Educause, an association of over 2,100 member organizations, describe themselves as ”a nonprofit association whose mission is to lead the way, advancing the strategic use of technology and data to further the promise of higher education” (https://www.educause.edu/about). They have produced what they call a “durable framework” for AI literacy in teaching and learning, with separate competencies for students, faculty, and staff. The faculty competencies are divided into technical understanding, evaluative skills, practical application, and ethical considerations.

The technical understanding competency begins with Fundamentals of AI: “Faculty must grasp the core principles of AI, including machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks. This foundational knowledge is crucial for understanding how AI operates and what its potential applications are in various academic disciplines.” This is a particularly strong statement in that it moves beyond GenAI to the underlying principles of other AI applications. A second point to touch on here is “Integration into teaching” under the practical application category. The target competency here is presented as “Faculty should be encouraged to integrate AI tools into their daily teaching activities. This includes using AI to personalize learning experiences, manage course content, and assess AI-informed assignments.” There are other valuable suggestions in this document, though it should be emphasized that the target is university-level education, driven by goals of learning subject content rather than by achieving interactional proficiency, as is the case for much of language learning.

ISTE (2024). Widely considered a major leader in technology and education, ISTE has provided technology standards for teachers for decades. TESOL drew on ISTE standards in the development of their framework for English language teachers and learners (TESOL, 2008). We focus here on the ISTE white paper on AI (ISTE 2024). It offers a framework for updating teacher education programs, which they call “Educator Preparation Programs,” or EPPs. The goal of the framework is to provide guidance in rethinking and restructuring teacher preparation. Although not primarily concerned with in-service learning, ISTE’s AI EPP framework is also relevant for teacher educators and institutions that work with in-service teacher professional development.

The framework is built around three major elements “to guide EPPs in their journey to integrate AI competencies into their programs” (p. 1). The first element, Vision, challenges EPPs to evaluate current faculty and teacher candidate attitudes toward AI and tools in use, followed by developing both short and long-term objectives and a process for tracking progress and achievement. The second element, Strategy, includes deepening faculty understanding of GenAI and how it works, modeling GenAI skills for teacher candidates and providing a foundation in GenAI ethics. The third element, Support, covers the importance of each EPP developing a governance structure at the institutional level, “that addresses accountability mechanisms, transparency, application, ethics, and impact assessment, among other aspects” (p. 6). The framework document includes additional details and illustrative examples useful to language programs and teacher educators involved with in-service teachers rather than initial preparation. Other relevant resources from ISTE are available at https://iste.org/ai.

Paradox Learning (Lee, 2023; Lee, 2025). Paradox Learning is a private company providing elearning solutions and training with an emphasis on developing AI literacy for educational clients. They have created a number of AI resources for educators and made them available open access. Pratschke (2024) recommends one of these, AI Toolkit for Educators (Lee, 2023), and we briefly review it here. In the first part, Lee addresses the question of why to use AI in education, noting how it can be used to support students with resources, personalize learning, provide real-time monitoring and intervention, and aid faculty in administration, research, and teaching. The next part looks at AI tools for administrative and workflow automation, research, and teaching and learning. This is followed by a discussion of challenges and limitations of AI in six areas (e.g., unequal access), with a case study to illustrate each. The next and most innovative element of Lee (2023) is a seven-part framework for what she calls AI literacy (primarily GenAI but including other types), covering both teachers and learners: fundamentals of AI, data fluency, critical thinking and fact checking, common AI applications, AI ethics, AI pedagogy, and future of work.

An update of the AI literacy competencies appears in Lee (2025). The framework is similar to the 2023 AI Toolkit but replaces “common AI applications” with “diverse use cases” and adds an eighth category of “assessment”, clearly needed in the education sector. Like the UNESCO framework, it distinguishes three distinct levels of AI literacy competencies, which Lee labels explorer, integrator, and pioneer. For example, in the assessment category at the lowest “explorer” level, Lee proposes the following target competencies: “List commonly used AI tools for assessment. Describe AI assessment tools’ primary functions, such as automated scoring and personalized feedback. Describe the benefits and limitations of AI in assessments, including efficiency, scalability, and inclusivity” (p. 6).

Beyond these four sources for determining AI competencies in education, those interested in a more comprehensive overview of GenAI in education can turn to Pratschke (2024), Generative AI and Education: Digital Pedagogies, Teaching Innovation and Learning Design. An overview of AI issues for language teaching can be found in Edmett et al. (2024), Artificial intelligence and English language teaching: Preparing for the future. We recommend that teacher educators in particular become familiar with the content of these excellent resources.

As is clear from the preceding review, there is a great deal of overlap among AI competency frameworks in terms of the areas they recommend addressing, even though each is targeting a different population. All four point to the importance of knowing the fundamentals of what GenAI is and by extension what it is not. This suggests that teachers who simply jump in and use GenAI without that foundation face unnecessary challenges compared to those who have taken the time to build a basic understanding of GenAI and its range of functionalities for language learning.

As a first step for teachers, we recommend starting with an overview of GenAI to survey the range of issues and options. In addition to the information and insights in the first half of this paper and in the sources noted above, there are many others freely available online in text or video format that provide accessible surveys of GenAI for educational purposes. For example, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has produced a five-part Introduction to AI for Teachers and Students that is particularly useful because teacher and student perspectives are considered together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9gmyvf7JYo.

References

Educause. (2024). AI literacy in teaching and learning: A durable framework for higher education. https://www.educause.edu/content/2024/ai-literacy-in-teaching-and-learning/faculty-altl

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2024). Evolving teacher education in an AI world. https://1818747.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/1818747/2024_ISTE_whitepaper_EvolvingTeacher_Ed_in_an_AI_World.pdf.

Lee, S. (2023). AI toolkit for educators. Paradox Learning. https://paradoxlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AI-Toolkit-for-Educators_v3.pdf

Lee, S. (2025). AI literacy framework for educators & learning professionals. Paradox Learning. https://paradoxlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/AI-Literacy-Framework_updated_031325.pdf

UNESCO. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO Publishing. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104