A Position of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics Teaching
NCTM Position
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven tools can respond to students’ thinking and interests in ways that previous tools could not. By drawing from large language sets, AI has the potential to adjust application-based problems to student interests and identify the sense students have made even in their incorrect answers. Students will continue to need teachers’ mathematical, pedagogical, and relational expertise, though teachers are also likely to benefit from AI-driven tools. In some cases, AI may serve as a teaching assistant, but students will need teachers to help them create a bridge between prior knowledge, new knowledge, and shared knowledge. Teachers must tell students to be very skeptical about AI results, especially about the unique challenges of using tools that may have been trained on biased datasets. This skepticism can be woven into existing pedagogical and assessment techniques. Knowing this, educators need to be involved in developing and testing AI tools in math education to stay up to date with current AI trends to best prepare students for an AI future. Contrary to some popular opinions, this effort will require teachers with even deeper knowledge of math instruction and assessment—math teachers with more experience, not less.
