The Stages of Adaptation
How educators are responding to the arrival of AI
It’s been just over a year since ChatGPT was launched, as many have recently noted. And even though this launch was just one milestone in the arc of the development of AI, it was the one that most clearly signaled to educators that change was coming ahead.
Massive change.
And while a lot of that change is bound to be wonderful and incredibly positive, a shift of this magnitude is not one we are wired to process instantaneously. Like the stages of grief that most are at least vaguely familiar with, we tend to process massive change in stages. There is a grief to this kind of change, yes.
Adaptability means you are accepting of constant forward movement.
And as we enter 2024, educators find themselves in a wide variety of stages of adaptation. And I think it’s important that we realize that although it all seems hard now, the stage we want to get to is going to allow us to accept the difficult, fluctuating nature as the new reality. And not reluctantly - we understand that this is how we will flourish. It won’t always feel like survival. But you do have to move forward first.
So let’s explore what these stages look like so that we can identify where our current levels are - both individually and institutionally - and then better guide our own process of becoming adaptable. This is the way we get ourselves in motion.
Stage 1: Denial
Denial is a reliable and very typical response to massive change, and it is correct to note that many educators are very much still in this place. There is still the pull towards blocking access to AI in their schools, and they are fully attempting to go about their roles as if nothing has changed, not even trying to tinker with it. And while, during past societal upheavals, denial was something you could potentially employ for the duration of a career, the rate and scale of change we are facing now indicates this won’t work this time. All educators will face the need to adapt at one point or another. It is crucial that we support our colleagues moving on from this stage soon.
Stage 2: Acceptance
This is likely the most common stage most educators find themselves in today. They have seen the transformative power of AI in one demonstration or another. They know that things are about to change, they just don't know how. They might attend a webinar or an event to learn more and reflect on it. But they are not actively experimenting with AI tools and new methods. They likely need to see more first - more social validation or maybe more demonstrations relevant to their needs - before it really clicks. Once it clicks, the path to Stage 3 then opens up.
Stage 3: The Time Savers
The most obvious AI application to educators is for saving time. Modern teaching has a crushing administrative and distraction load. And many have rightly realized that AI presents the best option to save time - a lot of it - and are seeking to leverage it prolifically for this purpose. This also conveniently avoids the complexities of getting AI tools approved for students, therefore allowing adults to explore and benefit from AI without incorporating it fully into the classroom just yet. This is likely the stage that the majority of educators will be in within the 12-24 months, and it will start to free them to think about stage 4 and beyond.
Stage 4: Leveling Up
AI quite obviously presents more than just opportunities in time savings for educators, and at this stage, they will be quite tuned in to that reality. It’s creative. It’s collaborative. It’s a great source of feedback. And some people are even diving in and trying to figure out how to leverage AI to level up student outcomes. How can it be used to improve reading, math, or science skills? How can it aid creativity and critical thinking? There are innovative methods emerging to use AI for this purpose that are exciting to see and offer promise. This stage requires reflection and courage, as it challenges conventions and requires organizational buy-in to ensure student use. We expect to see more and more educators reach this stage in the coming year despite it remaining a relative minority.
Stage 5: This Changes Everything
A select few already see AI as the society-altering event that it is. It’s likely as big a change as the industrial revolution itself. A change that reshapes the future of jobs, relationships, and even how we find meaning throughout life. And like the industrial revolution, it’s a change that requires radically rethinking the purpose and goals of education at its core.
It’s a stage that takes the most courage to embrace. It is wildly uncertain. Nobody can predict what will happen, and whatever you do predict is bound to be wrong, at least in part. We’ve become quite used to predictions about everything year after year, believing that naming a thing’s possibilities gives it less power over us. That time is now over, and it’s going to take a great deal of trust for the majority of educators to move forward into this sphere.
The intrepid educators who already find themselves here know that the world as we know it today will not be there when the kids they are teaching graduate. They will enter a world that today's system of education likely does not fully prepare them for. It will happen that fast. And there isn’t time to wait before making some changes - we have to get started. People at this stage know that it’s worth it to take leaps of faith - to be at least partly wrong now because they could be mostly right later. They accept that being okay with uncertainty is the essence of being adaptable. And that being adaptable is the essence of our future entangled with AI. Everything will change.
And your role at this point? Work to help others reach this level with you so that you are not alone. The more educators reach this stage - and bring others with them - the easier it will be to start thinking about how to change education from the new perspective that Stage 5 offers.
Questions for reflection:
What stage are you in today?
What steps can you take to progress to the next stage?
And how can you help others do the same?
From the start of the Optimalist, it’s been our goal to explore stage 5. And while we’ve been wrong a few times already along the way, we’re hopefully progressing to being more right as we go. And we welcome you to join us on that journey. Click here to share your thoughts on Twitter/X using the tag #Optimalist, comment below in the comments section of this article, or hit “reply” to this email to respond directly to us rather than in public.
Thank you all for supporting the continued growth of The Optimalist - including the launch of our podcast! - and Happy 2024! We look forward to closer collaboration with you all as we stretch our arms even further over the next year.🥳
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