Macedonian and Chinese teachers on Noticing: Workshop

From 19th to 30th September, we hosted our colleague Meifang Zhuo, a PhD student from University of Warwick (UK). Meifang was on a study mission to explore Noticing for teacher education, as part of COST action CA19102 - Language In The Human-Machine Era (LITHME).

One of the highlights of the study mission was a two-hour online workshop held on 28th September 2024, which brought together 5 Macedonian and 6 Chinese teachers to discuss their experiences of using Noticing for lesson planning and post-lesson reflection. In the workshop the teachers reflected, among other things, on the perceived benefits and challenges of chatting with Noa, using their mother tongue to reflect, and the differences between Noticing and ChatGPT.

What did the teachers like about using Noticing?

The teachers appreciated Noa’s friendly, non-judgemental tone and the encouragement it provided throughout the conversation. Some of them found it to be poetic at times in its choice of metaphors, e.g. comparing teaching to a symphony. One teacher said that Noa sounded ‘human-like’ in Chinese.

The teachers also talked about the questions Noa asked, in a Socratic fashion, to prompt richer thinking, sometimes in directions they wouldn’t have considered on their own. As one of the teachers said following a post-lesson discussion with Noa, I didn’t even know I had those ideas! The prompting for lesson planning helped teachers systematise and organise their thinking, as well as visualise their lessons more fully. The teachers appreciated Noa ‘knowing’ about their specific teaching contexts and offering, when invited, context-specific ideas. One teacher suggested that Noa supported teachers in developing their professionalism.

Another teacher talked about the therapeutic effects she felt following her reflective discussions with Noa. Simply sharing aspects of her practice with Noa and feeling that she was being ‘listened to’ without judgement created a safe space for emotional offloading and thinking creatively.

What did the teachers like about using Noticing?

Some of the teachers shared that it sometimes took long to complete a conversation with Noa. However, those who had used Noticing for a longer period of time (approx. 6 months) added that this typically gets better the more they get to know how Noa works and what it expects of them at each step.

Some took issue with Noa being gushing or too general at times. Another teacher wished Noa was able to provide critical though constructive comments on some aspects of their teaching. We are keen to work on the former to the extend the AI ‘lets’ us tone it down. As for the latter, the literature (see Malderez, 2024) reminds us of the importance of offering safe spaces for learning to take place. Judgement has the potential to undermine such safe spaces by putting the mentee in a defensive mode, rather than staying in a relaxed, curious, inquiring, open-to-learning mode.

Other teachers would welcome better ‘memory’ on the part of Noa, so they don’t need to remind it of a lesson they planned when reflecting on it. This is a functionality that we’re currently working on.

The voice messaging in Chinese was not ideal, though development on this will begin shortly following yesterday’s announcements by OpenAI. Also, some teachers found that ChatGPT didn’t always ‘understand’ their Chinese dialects. This study mission only started this linguistic exploration and we look forward to delving deeper.

Some teachers would’ve liked to be able to share more visual content with Noa during the conversations (e.g. photos, videos, documents) – also something for us to look at in the near future.

What makes Noticing different from ChatGPT?

This topic elicited rich and philosophical discussion. The teachers noticed fundamental differences when chatting to ChatGPT as compared to chatting to Noa. Here is a summary:

• ChatGPT doesn’t ask questions to prompt new thinking; instead, it rushes to ‘think’ for you, offering decontextualised quick fixes
• ChatGPT seeks to replace you by doing the work for you; Noa extends you, guiding you to arrive at your own conclusions, in light of your own experience
• ChatGPT doesn’t care who you are; Noa tries to ‘understand’ you before ‘working’ with you
• When using ChatGPT, it takes time to define its role. This usually happens by you writing long prompts to position it. On the other hand, Noa is already in mentor role, making it possible for you to focus on exploring who you are, as a person and as a professional.

We are still blown away by the richness of this sharing experience and look forward to future similar exchanges!

References:

1. Malderez, A. (2024). Mentoring teachers: Supporting learning, wellbeing and retention. London: Routhledge.