AI & Teaching

Reflection points

• Could an over- reliance on AI to illustrate teaching lead to a limited visual repertoire for students?
• What ethical issues need to be considered in the casual use of AI as a teaching aid?
• Is it appropriate to ban all use and reference to AI from the art room?

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Everyday AI: Teaching art and design inevitably involves helping students look and see the world and using their imagination to reflect, respond and recreate. Art rooms are usually fitted with digital projectors and everyone understands how to use PowerPoint. On a very obvious and basic level AI generated images will help teachers explain, illustrate and illuminate ideas and options for their students. AI will also provide opportunities to create different iterations of images to support critical discourse.

Prompt to support teaching about one point perspective for 12 year olds;  AI role illustrator: context 12 year olds’ lesson in perspective.

Art and design teachers will use AI to generate images that are directly related to their teaching and lessons. These visual examples will help their students better understand the learning objectives and practical tasks in lessons. They will also support critical discourse and understanding as they will enable teachers to isolate and present images which directly reflect specific aspects of the subject.

Below are some potential uses of AI that might interest art and design teachers. There will be many more and over time these will become increasingly complex and sophisticated.

Examples and suggestions

Teachers might use AI to generate teaching materials and images to support pedagogy and student learning and discussion.

• Reimagine: AI can recreate classical paintings in styles ranging from cubist fragmentation to digital pixel art, encouraging students to explore and question the relationships between style, meaning and context.

This can help develop skills of critical analysis and promote deeper understanding of artistic interpretation and stylistic conventions.

Example Prompt: “Recreate Picasso’s Guernica in the style of the impressionists/cubists/pop artists/Japanese woodblock printing”

• Visualize: AI can generate visual metaphors to represent abstract concepts, ideas and values. This can enhance conceptual thinking and stimulate research into the visual communication of complex or abstract ideas.

Example Prompt: “Create an image representing ‘societal transformation’ using intersecting geometric shapes and a gradient of transitional colors”

MidJourney

• Design: AI can produce a series of design iterations that systematically modify elements like composition, color palette, or structural balance. This can illustrate design thinking, encourage experimental approaches, and illustrate the nuanced impact of design decisions.

Example Prompt: “Generate four variations of a minimalist chair design, progressively altering proportions and material textures”

MidJourney

• Cultural Exchange: AI can create nuanced visual compositions that blend artistic elements from diverse cultural traditions, revealing both culturally distinctive and universal artistic expressions. This can promote cross-cultural understanding and encourage students to recognize both cultural specificity and shared artistic languages.

Example Prompt: “Combine elements from West African textile patterns with Japanese ink wash painting techniques”

• Form and Function: AI can generate multiple versions of an image or design exploring the relationship between structural design, material properties, and aesthetic intention. This can support students’ understanding of design principles and the interplay between form and function..

Example Prompt: “Visualize a chair that simultaneously represents industrial efficiency and organic natural forms”

• Beyond the colour wheel: AI can produce versions of an image each with dramatically different colour palette. This can help teachers demonstrate how colour can affect artistic intentions, emotional responses, and compositional strategies. This can support interactive demonstrations of colour theory principles beyond the traditional colour wheel.

Example Prompt: “On a single sheet create four images of the same natural landscape using complementary colour schemes that progressively shift the emotional temperature”

• Artistic Movements: AI can create detailed images which mimick different artistic movements. This can reveal the distinctive visual languages of styles like Art Nouveau, Constructivism, or Digital Minimalism. Which provides an opportunity to compare and contrast, and to disassociate style and content. Students’ will develop their understanding and use of critical analysis in this way..

Example Prompt: “Create an image based upon a scene from the first world war in the distinct visual language of David Hockney/Paul Cezanne“

• Creative thinking: AI can generate unexpected visual juxtapositions that challenge normal associative thinking. This reflects and illustrates what has been called combinational creativity. This can help students understand and further develop their creative thinking skills and encourage them to break traditional conceptual boundaries.

Example Prompt: “Create an image that visually integrates a musical instrument, sea creature, and architectural element”

MidJourney

• Compositional Deconstruction: AI can generate a variety of images that simultaneously demonstrate and challenge traditional compositional rules. This can enhance students’ understanding of visual grammar and encourage critical reflection on compositional strategies.

Example Prompt: “Visualize a portrait that deliberately disrupts classical compositional principles of symmetry and balance”

AI and Professional Support

(note this could be split into another concept page here?)

Schools and teachers in all subjects are experimenting with AI to generate lesson plans, curriculum plans, worksheets and assignments. The pace of change in the use of AI in this field is too dramatic and rapid to record here. However, here are some ideas that may be of interest.

Examples and suggestions

• Lesson Planning: AI can act as a planning partner, helping to generate creative, age-appropriate lesson ideas that align with specific learning objectives and national curriculum requirements. By providing fresh perspectives and tailored suggestions, AI can help teachers break out of routine teaching strategies and introduce more dynamic, engaging learning experiences.
  Example Prompt: “Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by generating three KS3 art lesson ideas exploring identity that incorporate mixed media techniques and contemporary artist references”

click here for an example of the AI response from Claude 3.5

• Curriculum Mapping: AI can assist teachers in developing comprehensive, progressive curriculum frameworks that ensure systematic skill development. It can suggest incremental learning pathways that balance technical skills, creative exploration, and critical understanding across different key stages.
  Example Prompt: “Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by creating a progression framework for drawing skills from Year 7 to Year 9, highlighting key learning milestones and skill complexity”

• Breadth and Range: AI can help teachers design curriculum experiences that authentically support students’ development as artists, designers, and craftspeople. By providing context-specific examples and activity suggestions, AI can help ensure students engage with a diverse range of creative practices across different educational stages.
  Example Prompt: “”Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by suggesting age-appropriate creative activities that help Key Stage 3 students experience professional design thinking processes”

• Assessment Support: AI can generate nuanced assessment language that is developmentally appropriate, helping teachers create clear, constructive feedback frameworks. This supports more meaningful self and peer assessment, encouraging students to develop critical reflection skills.
  Example Prompt: “”Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school and an experienced art examiner. Please help me improve my teaching by generating pupil friendly assessment descriptors for GCSE art coursework that provide clear, supportive language for different achievement levels across the range of national curriculum aims and objectives“

• Research and Context: AI rapidly provides concise, accurate summaries of art movements, artist biographies, and cultural contexts. This enables teachers to quickly enrich teaching materials with authoritative background information, supporting more contextually informed art education.
  Example Prompt: “”Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by providing a concise overview of the Bauhaus movement suitable for Key Stage 4 students, highlighting key principles and influential artists”

• Differentiation Strategies: AI supports inclusive teaching by generating multiple approaches to teaching similar concepts. This helps teachers create flexible lesson plans that can be adapted to support students with diverse learning needs, ensuring all students can access and engage with art education.
  Example Prompt: “Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by suggesting three differentiated approaches to teaching perspective drawing that cater to all my students“

• Professional Development: AI acts as a collaborative tool for teacher reflection and growth, helping educators articulate their teaching philosophies, draft professional statements, and explore innovative pedagogical approaches in art and design education.
  Example Prompt: “Please adopt the role of an experienced and successful subject leader of Art and design in a UK secondary school. Please help me improve my teaching by drafting …“

Important Considerations

AI should be used as a supportive tool, not a replacement for professional judgment. Teachers should always critically evaluate and adapt AI-generated suggestions.

This guidance encourages UK art teachers to view AI as a collaborative planning tool that can save time, provide inspiration, support, and fresh perspectives in art and design education.

Further information about AI programmes can be found here. Information about prompt engineering can be found here.