How international schools are embracing AI

Posted on 6th January 2020

Posted by Charles Wood

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

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I am privileged to have worked closely with schools across the world, from setting up schools in Hong Kong to helping the world’s best international schools harness the power of technology.

British international schools are rightfully regarded as bastions of high standards and rigour. But they are also leading the charge with regards to another important aspect of education – the use of advanced technology to improve outcomes.

No two international schools are the same, but a common theme among many is putting the pupil first. Many believe that when it comes to education, one size really does not fit all. This ethos filters down through all aspects of schools, including using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to help provide each student with a personalised education.

Using AI to extend and differentiate the classroom

At CENTURY, our AI-powered tool is used by many leading international schools to extend and differentiate the classroom, while being able to target early interventions. After launching internationally just two years ago, CENTURY is now being used in classrooms in 12 different countries.

For example, St Christopher’s in Bahrain now uses CENTURY to provide differentiated homework, while Dubai Scholars has used it to demonstrate their effective use of data to the KHDA. The British International School, Cairo (BISC), uses CENTURY to stretch their most able learners, while Doha College plans to use it with their primary, secondary and sixth form students.

I recently caught up with Jonathan Davies, Assistant Head of Junior School at BISC. He told me that “pupil, parent and teacher feedback following integration is proving positive.”

“AI allows a whole class to be working on completely different content, suited to their challenge needs”

“The data CENTURY provides is formative and is in-line with our teacher judgments on each pupil. The AI allows a whole class to be working on completely different content, suited to their challenge needs.”

Schools use CENTURY in different ways, from an effective classroom learning platform to a homework tool. Others use it to improve interventions by providing the teacher with real-time data on how each student in performing, allowing them to support or stretch more effectively. 

At BISC, CENTURY has enabled new forms of teaching. As Jonathan explains, the tool “lends itself perfectly to the flipped and blended methods of learning.” 

“Pupils from as young as Year 2 are using CENTURY effectively to help them learn independently. We are excited and optimistic about what the future holds.”

“3.5 million self-marked questions”

One international school pupil is currently the third highest CENTURY user anywhere in the world, using the tool to answer thousands of questions with a remarkable average score of 79% – boosting his learning while saving teachers hours of marking. Since this September, pupils in international schools have answered over 3.5 million self-marked questions on CENTURY.

Ms Abbass, a parent of a pupil at BISC, feels her son has benefited from the introduction of AI. “He is very excited to work on CENTURY. He finds the videos easy to understand. I thought at first that he would have lots of questions for me but it has been the opposite.”

International schools are proving that AI can empower both teachers and students to fulfil their potential. This forward-thinking approach is exactly what is needed to ensure that we equip students with the skills needed for the future.

Learn more about how CENTURY is helping international schools to remove learning roadblocks so that every student can succeed.

This blog originally appeared in the British Schools in the Middle East newsletter.