Author: Yang Shujuan, Executive Director of CommonWealth Education Innovation Hub
Should children's first step in doing homework be to hand it over to ChatGPT? Swiss high school teacher Wagner doesn't forbid this; instead, she leads her class in checking each AI's answers one by one. The result? Nine out of ten were merely aesthetically pleasing but completely irrelevant to the topic. She uses the ancient Greek midwifery method, spending only five minutes in each class asking questions to encourage students to think for themselves.
Aliena Wagner, Social Sciences Teacher
On the screen, the elegant and youthful Aliena Wagner laughs heartily, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm for teaching. When she talks about classroom discussions, her gestures are rich and her tone is light and cheerful; you can imagine how fun her classes must be even from a distance.
In reality, it's hard to imagine that she actually hated going to school when she was a child, and even thought that being a teacher was the job she least wanted to do in the world.
People who hate school decide to change the system themselves.
Wagner is a social sciences teacher at the Weinfelden Business Education Center (BZWW, equivalent to high school level) in Switzerland, primarily teaching philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Before entering the academic world, she majored in philosophy and political science, participated in multinational projects funded by the United Nations, and continues to work in the field of environmental technology.
"When I left compulsory education, I thought being a teacher was the worst job in the world," Wagner admitted with a laugh. At that time, she utterly loathed the rote learning and cramming education. But while in university, she suddenly changed her mind: "It's easy to criticize the system, but the real challenge is to go in and do it better."
And so, someone who once hated school the most stood on the podium. Her goal was clear: not to cram in answers or have students memorize them, but to provide students with portable critical thinking tools so that they could learn the most, think the deepest, and benefit from them for a lifetime.
This original intention has shown great vitality when the AI wave came.
What to do if students copy AI? Don't forbid it; catch them red-handed with the whole class.
In the classroom, Wagner also faces the unavoidable impact of AI. When students encounter assignments or discussion questions, their first reaction is to feed the questions to ChatGPT.
Many teachers choose to strictly prohibit it, but Wagner does not. She tells her students, "You are all over eighteen and responsible for your own learning. But I must remind you that AI can make mistakes, and learning cannot be outsourced."
When students prepare presentations, they often directly copy sentences generated by AI. Because these sentences usually look formal and elegant, the students assume their teachers won't notice. But Wagner can see right through them—because the sophisticated language is nothing like the students' everyday speech. "When I ask them what a certain word means, they often can't answer."
When students submitted their assignments by directly copying answers from ChatGPT, Wagner didn't scold them. Instead, she would review the answers together to see if they were correct and if they aligned with the theories in the textbook.
As a result, in 90% of cases, the content produced by AI only "looked good," but was actually irrelevant, conceptually vague, and unable to accurately solve the problem. After several attempts, the students realized the truth: blindly applying AI not only failed to teach them anything, but also did nothing to improve their grades.
Instead of banning AI, the goal is to guide students to identify the errors in AI themselves. (AI illustration)
Plato's "Socratic Method": Awakening Active Thinking in 5 Minutes
If AI doesn't provide the answers, how should classes be conducted? Wagner employs the "midwife technique" and inquiry-based teaching methods, originating from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. She believes that the answers and the potential for thinking already reside within the students; the teacher's role is to raise key questions and "bring forth" knowledge.
Sounds complicated? Actually, it's easy and quick to operate, and you can flexibly adjust the time based on the number of students in the class.
In her "Perceptual Psychology" class, she doesn't hold lectures or discussions. Instead, she poses a question: "Do you all think that everyone perceives the same situation in exactly the same way? Why?" She then gives students 5–10 minutes for free discussion. The answers she gathers often directly lead to the psychological theories she will teach later.
For example, when discussing social inequality, many young students can easily become eloquent, but they may not clearly understand the complexities involved. She led her students on a "Privilege Walk": everyone stood in a line in the middle of the classroom with their eyes closed. The teacher read aloud a situational sentence (such as "I have never been afraid to go out alone at night"), and those who fit the description took a step forward, while those who didn't took a step back. When everyone opened their eyes and visually saw the spatial disparity between each other and their own position, the entire room fell silent instantly.
"Teaching theory is not difficult; what is difficult is giving them the tools to express their feelings and form their own arguments," Wagner said. Adolescents are going through a period of self-identification exploration, and this kind of thoughtful experience can accompany them throughout their lives.
A reminder to adults: Don't underestimate students.
In response to the impact of the AI era on education and upbringing, Wagner's core advice to teachers and parents is: "Trust in the abilities of children and students."
When children ask, "Why do we have to learn this?", traditional adults often feel challenged. Wagner chose to give honest answers—sometimes "because it's part of the school curriculum," and sometimes "it helps you understand how the world works." When adults are honest with their children, they are more likely to demonstrate mature thinking.
She also reminded everyone to view grades rationally: a bad test score doesn't mean a child is unintelligent; it might just mean they were in a bad mood that day or had too many tests that week. What adults should do is help them adjust their study methods, not use grades to negate their personal value. No matter how large the system or how tight the schedule, as long as teachers are willing to dedicate five to ten minutes each class to guidance, change can quietly and continuously take root.
October 31 – November 1 International Forum on Critical Thinking Education: Wagner Shares Three Masterful Discussion Techniques
Do you also want to be able to easily lead high-quality and highly engaging discussions in the classroom or at home, just like Wagner?
On October 31st of this year, she participated in the "International Forum on Critical Thinking Education" hosted by Lead for Taiwan, demonstrating three easy-to-use exploration methods that are popular in European classrooms:
- Think-Pair-Share: Enabling shy children to establish independent stances and speak up bravely.
- Expert Group: This allows the entire class to collaborate and instantly become experts on the topic.
- Fishbowl Discussion: A magical conversational technique that allows the whole class to automatically start talking simply by placing empty chairs in the classroom!
Bonus content: In the AI era, how can we protect children's right to think?
Beyond international perspectives and cross-border thinking, Taiwan also offers some excellent and practical implementation solutions! Hsu Tai-ping, a popular teacher at Taipei's Jih-hsin Elementary School who has compiled teaching materials and delivered courses in the "AI Literacy Popularization Project," has joined the initiative. On November 1st, she will lecture on "How to Protect Children's Intellectual Sovereignty in the AI Era?" She will share the AI literacy teaching materials practiced at MIT RAISE. From AI literacy and media literacy to educational support, she will explore how schools and families can help children understand and utilize AI effectively, while maintaining their ability to verify information and make independent judgments—ensuring that technology truly becomes a tool, not a substitute for thinking.
Want to know how an empty chair can spark a lively discussion in the whole class? Want to learn how to give students back control in the AI era? The "International Critical Thinking Education Forum," promoted by the CommonWealth Education Innovation Hub, offers a series of inspiring dialogues that are definitely worth experiencing for yourself!