developed in partnership with the second largest teachers’\u00a0union<\/a> in the United States. The American Federation of Teachers says that over five years, the program aims to support 400,000 educators.<\/p>\nAccording to the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, the biggest teachers’ union in Canada,\u00a0educators here don’t have anything like that, and\u00a0certainly don’t have anything\u00a0that’s been uniformly available across the country.<\/p>\n
“Teachers are really struggling with artificial intelligence.They’re struggling on their own because there are no policies and frameworks put in place,” said Heidi Yetman, who spoke to CBC\u00a0from Ottawa during her time\u00a0as the\u00a0President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. Her tenure\u00a0ended last month.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/heidi-yetman.jpg\")
Heidi Yetman, the outgoing president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, says the current guidance for teachers on AI isn’t specific enough and doesn’t offer\u00a0true, meaningful education on the potential and pitfalls of AI in the classroom. (CBC)<\/p>\n
In Canada, places like Alberta and Quebec have rolled out AI guidance for schools,\u00a0mostly focusing on what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable use. Yetman\u00a0says the guidelines are a “mishmash” and “all over the place.” She says the guidance isn’t specific enough and doesn’t offer\u00a0true, meaningful education for teachers on potential and pitfalls of AI in the classroom.<\/p>\n
CBC News reached out to provinces and territories to inquire about the level of support offered to teachers with\u00a0respect to AI, and received\u00a0a patchwork of responses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
British Columbia said that while the province has provided\u00a0general guidelines, “school districts are developing their own local policies and approaches.”<\/p>\n
The Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education and Early Childhood Development\u00a0said that in addition to general guidelines, “to date, nearly 2,000 NLSchools staff members have participated in AI professional learning sessions.” It noted\u00a0that more training will be added to respond to the rapid evolution of AI technologies.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | How AI is changing education:<\/p>\n
Information Radio – MBHow AI Is Changing the Way Students Learn\u2014and How Teachers Teach<\/p>\n
The diminishing role of teachers<\/p>\n
Teachers also may need reassurance that they’ll still have a role in the brave new world where AI is part of education.<\/p>\n
“In other words, can we use AI to replace a teacher? And, I hate to say it, but I think that we are headed in that direction,” said\u00a0Yetman.<\/p>\n
Johanathan Woodworth, the associate professor of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, says anxiety around AI can change how teachers perceive themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/johanathan-woodworth.jpg\")
Johanathan Woodworth, an associate professor of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, says anxiety around AI can change how teachers perceive themselves. (CBC)<\/p>\n
“For example, a lot of teachers are thinking, ‘If I integrate AI, am I actually the teacher who owns this?\u00a0Who is pedagogically in charge of the teaching?’ “<\/p>\n
Woodworth, who\u00a0specializes in training aspiring teachers how to integrate technology into their teaching, says that no matter what form AI education for teachers takes in the future, teachers must be consulted.<\/p>\n
Who should train\u00a0teachers on AI?<\/p>\n
One thing teachers, unions and professors of education seem to agree on is who shouldn’t be paying for teacher training. Most expressed concern about the motivations of tech giants in the U.S. that are investing in teacher training,\u00a0and wouldn’t want to see it done in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When the creators of various AI platforms are rolling out the learning, we aren’t necessarily embedding what we talk about as humanized pedagogy and the practices that are needed in classrooms to build integrity and AI literacy into that learning,” said\u00a0Phillips, one of the teachers in Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | How common is AI in student work?\u00a0![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754302630_499_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Are students leaning too much on AI in their work? Surveys say yes<\/p>\n
Surveys suggest many students are using generative artificial intelligence in their work, with KPMG in Canada finding that nearly 70 per cent of students who use AI say they are not learning as much as a result.<\/p>\n
She and her colleague Mitchell say\u00a0teachers are finding their own ways to use AI ethically. Mitchell was an early adopter of ChatGPT, working it into his lessons.<\/p>\n
“One of the ways that math teachers have been using AI is to teach students how to turn, say, ChatGPT into a tutor with some very intelligent prompting. And then arming that student with the ability to ask ChatGPT for math help when they’re at home, when they don’t have access to their math teacher,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitchell says it’s too late to pretend that AI won’t infiltrate every aspect of education, including how students learn and\u00a0complete their assignments, and how teachers assess them.<\/p>\n
“The reality is today’s AI is the worst AI that students are ever going to use,” he said. “And if teachers aren’t arming those students with the skills to work with AI ethically, with integrity, then we’re doing something wrong.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even during the summer break, Ontario high school teachers\u00a0Jamie Mitchell and Tamara Phillips know that many conversations they’ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-44329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/jamie-mitchell-and-tamara-phillips.jpg\")
Ontario high school teachers Jamie Mitchell, left, and Tamara Phillips say their colleagues have received little guidance on how to incorporate AI into their instruction and lesson plans. (Mark Bochsler\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754302630_914_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n