Rethinking Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

Learning

Written by Sharon Aschaiek

Educators gather at Porter’s to shape what comes next.

What should school become in an age of AI? Exploring that question and more will be the focus of Miss Porter’s School’s upcoming symposium, The Future of School: Learning with Purpose, Designing for Change, which will take place Dec. 4-5 on its campus in Farmington, Connecticut.

The event will bring together educators, administrators and innovators from secondary schools across the U.S. to participate in discussions about meaningful engagement with AI in schools, as well as ways to design learning environments that develop systemic, genuine and enduring student agency.

“As educational institutions, it’s incumbent on us to think deeply about where schools are headed in this age of AI, and what our purpose is — what are the skills, experiences and opportunities that are most important for students to have access to?”

— Nelle Andrews

Dean of Curriculum & Instruction

During the symposium, session topics will fall into one of four key themes:

People sit at a long table in a meeting room, talking and smiling. Laptops, drinks, and papers are on the table. One woman gestures enthusiastically while others listen and engage in conversation.

AI & Durable Skills

Understanding which human skills matter most to thrive in today’s world, and how to cultivate them in students.
Educating with Purpose

Clarifying the main objective of a high school education today, and what success looks like after students graduate.
Learning Design & Assessment

Considering new ways to foster students’ competencies and evaluate their understanding and application of content and skills.
Student Agency

Enabling students to become the authors of their own learning.

The event will begin with remarks from featured speaker Dr. Tyler Thigpen, the co-founder and head of The Forest Schools and the Institute for Self-Directed Learning. Thigpen will share his experiences designing educational systems and structures that allow student agency to flourish. The second featured speaker, Jared Colley, the chief innovation officer of Mount Vernon School, will examine how agentic AI is redefining human value at work and in school. Colley will identify three emerging skill shifts and present futures literacy as an approach to help educators move from reactive policy to values-driven strategy.

The symposium will feature presenters from schools across the country as well as from Miss Porter’s School. A session with Maureen Lamb, the Latin teacher and Language Department chair at Porter’s, will focus on how to approach assessment design in the era of AI. Two Porter’s seniors, Lil Coe ’27 and Lilly Benanti ’27, will lead a session outlining their contributions to the implementation of the school’s competency-based mastery learning framework.

A man in a dress shirt and tie gestures while presenting to a group; a screen behind him reads PRACTICE BY DESIGN with a photo of a woman outdoors.

A woman with long brown hair in a striped shirt listens attentively to a man in a blazer across a table in a classroom or meeting setting. Papers and coffee cups are on the table. Other people are in the background.

The symposium will also encourage participants to examine the role schools play in students’ lives as they prepare for their futures beyond high school. AI technologies continue to impact diverse sectors of the workforce, and today’s college graduates face an ever-evolving professional climate. To effectively support students as they prepare for the world beyond high school, Andrews says independent schools need to think outside the college-preparatory box. To this end, the symposium will feature a curated panel discussion about whether and how schools should prepare students for more diverse options after graduation.

“We have a responsibility to prepare students for all kinds of pathways beyond the standard four-year college route,” says Andrews, who also teaches humanities courses at Porter’s. “Increasingly, students will need access to more authentic learning experiences, whether they be internships, apprenticeships or work-related experiences, and those could inform their next steps more fully.”

Andrews notes that bringing educators and innovators together to think deeply about these important topics is one of the many ways in which Porter’s lives its mission to develop “informed, bold, resourceful, and ethical global citizens,” a mission she says drives the work of both students and teachers at the school.

“When we have well-informed and highly engaged educators who are curious and willing to try new things, they are better able to shape the futures of our students,” Andrews says. “This is how we grow stronger as an institution.”