Noticing workshop at BERA 2024

In my workshop entitled Reflective practice in teacher education: Can GPTs act as scaffolders?, the participants (Ps) had a first-hand experience of at least one of the conversations made available to them in Noticing: Plan a lesson, Plan a talk, Consult Noa and Post-lesson reflection.

The Ps were pleasantly surprised, even ‘fascinated’ (!) by the quality of Noa scaffolding their conversations, ‘managing’ them throughout. This ability to manage the conversation by sticking to a specific protocol and ‘knowing’ when to move from one stage to another was singled out as a feature that neurodiverse learners might particularly benefit from as it takes away the stress due to the unpredictability of human interaction.

Some Ps requested specific ideas from Noa and appreciated that some of those offered were useful – they wouldn’t necessarily have considered them outside of the conversation with Noa.

One P reported being prompted by Noa to take into consideration various perspectives, which helped him understand his situation better and generate ideas about how to act on his new understandings.

Some Ps were amused by Noa pretending to have shared experiences (e.g. I once had a similar situation in my own classroom).

I checked with the group the extent to which chatting to Noa was overall a ‘human’ experience for them, allowing them to exercise their autonomy and authenticity, and it was a unanimous ‘yes’.

One P was playful testing Noa: she pretended to be an exasperated teacher, at her wits’ end, not being able to manage a situation in her class. She wished to check what safeguarding Noa would offer. While we hadn’t explicitly designed any safeguarding, it was good to see that it tried to calm down the P, acknowledging her feelings and trying to keep her focused on the issue at hand. More customised solutions are arguably needed in this area, and we’re currently working on that improvement.

On a cultural note, it transpired that in Sweden, NOA stands for National Operations Department, therefore calling up undesired associations. We’re reflecting on the implications of this information and considering alternatives for Noa in different cultures.