Teachers Talk Radio AI in Education - research outcome, case studies: The Twilight Show with Timea Kadar
Nov 29, 2025
Dr. Marcos E Barreto, an Associate Professor in data science, and Dr. Casey Kearney, an Assistant Professor in public policy, delve into the transformative effects of AI in education. They discuss the GENIAL project, focusing on generative AI's role in curriculum design and the importance of authentic student interactions with AI tools. Insights include the 5R learning framework, contrasting shallow and deeper AI use, and the need for process-focused assessments to maintain cognitive challenges. Their research highlights the potential for responsible AI integration in teaching.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
How GENIAL Began And Scaled
- Marcos describes GENIAL starting from a July 2023 focus group observing code-completion tool use by students.
- The project expanded into 2024 across four departments, collecting chat logs and surveys from ~200 students.
Using Timestamped Chat Logs
- Casey and colleagues collected full chat histories with timestamps so they could align AI queries to lecture moments and submissions.
- This allowed them to see, for example, a student asking about a concept during a lecture and then submitting related work minutes later.
Five Styles Of Student–AI Interaction
- The team classified student-AI interactions into five R styles: resistive, receptive, resourceful, reflective, and a fifth variant.
- Students often switch styles by context; many showed resourceful and reflective behaviours when prompted to critique or extend AI outputs.