Revisionist History: From Smart Talks with IBM – How AI Assistants Can Transform Education

Podcast Information

• Title: Revisionist History
• Host/Author: Pushkin Industries (featuring Malcolm Gladwell)
• Episode: From Smart Talks with IBM: How AI Assistants Can Transform Education
• Release Date: June 12, 2025
• Description: Malcolm Gladwell explores overlooked aspects of history, re-examining events, people, ideas, and more to offer new perspectives. In this episode, he delves into the intersection of artificial intelligence and education, specifically focusing on how AI assistants can revolutionize teaching methodologies.

1. Introduction

Malcolm Gladwell opens the episode by referencing a well-known educational research video featuring a boy named Sean. This clip serves as a foundational example to explore the concept of responsive teaching and the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing educational practices.

Malcolm Gladwell [00:07]: "In the world of educational research, there's a famous video of a boy named Sean... It's a 10-minute clip of a third grade class somewhere in Michigan."

2. The Story of Sean and Responsive Teaching

Gladwell recounts the interaction between Sean and his teacher, Deborah Loewenberg Ball, emphasizing her unique teaching approach. Instead of correcting Sean's misconceptions about even and odd numbers directly, Ms. Ball guides him to discover the right answer through thoughtful questioning.

Sean [01:07]: "I was thinking that it's a. It's an ad. It can be an add number two..."

Malcolm Gladwell [02:17]: "Deborah Ball worked magic. She never told Sean the right answer. She just led him to a place where he could discover it for himself."

3. The Concept of Responsive Teaching

Responsive teaching is dissected as an educational approach characterized by improvisation, empathy, and patience. Gladwell highlights how Ms. Ball's methods embody these traits, fostering an environment where students can explore and understand concepts deeply.

Malcolm Gladwell [03:00]: "Improvisation, empathy, patience. That's responsive teaching."

4. Advocates and Philosophies Supporting Responsive Teaching

Amy Robertson, a physicist at Seattle Pacific University, is featured discussing her advocacy for responsive teaching. She underscores the importance of authentic student agency and legitimizing students as knowledgeable individuals.

Amy Robertson [04:38]: "Students need to have a sense of agency in what happens in the classroom and like authentic agency where they can be legitimized as knowers."

Malcolm Gladwell [05:31]: "Eleanor Duckworth's work around having wonderful ideas... the goal of education is for students to have wonderful ideas and have a good time having them."

5. Challenges in Teaching Responsive Teaching

Gladwell explores the difficulties in training educators to adopt responsive teaching methods. The conventional educational environment often expects teachers to be the undisputed source of truth, making responsive teaching a counterintuitive and challenging practice to master.

Malcolm Gladwell [06:00]: "Responsive teaching is deeply counterintuitive, and the only way to understand its beauty is to do it over and over again."

6. The Role of AI in Transforming Education

Transitioning to the core topic, Gladwell introduces the potential of AI to aid in training teachers. He parallels traditional technological advancements with the current rise of AI, highlighting how AI's capabilities have exponentially grown.

Malcolm Gladwell [06:30]: "With the rise of artificial intelligence, the scale and complexity of the problems technology can help us solve has jumped by many orders of magnitude."

7. AI Tools: Agents vs. Assistants

Gladwell distinguishes between AI agents and AI assistants, explaining their functionalities and applications within the education sector.

• AI Agents: Proactive tools that can reason, plan, and autonomously perform tasks.

  Brian Bissell [08:23]: "We can see patterns of how agents and assistants can help... streamlining their lives and making data more accessible to them 24 hours a day."

• AI Assistants: Reactive tools that respond to user requests and answer questions.

  Malcolm Gladwell [08:57]: "AI assistants are now being used to further the responsive teaching revolution."

8. Building AI Assistants for Teacher Training

Gladwell narrates his visit to Kennesaw State University, where Professor Dabe Lee and fellow researcher Sean English discuss their project: creating AI assistants that emulate the personas of students like Ji Woo, Gabriel, and Noah. These AI personas help pre-service teachers practice responsive teaching in a controlled, repeatable environment.

Ji Woo [11:17]: "It was like 14 weeks."

Ji Woo [13:07]: "Gabrielle... answers open-ended questions in a closed way. That's the problem most teachers face with shy or reserved children."

9. Real-World Applications and Feedback

Logan Hovis, a junior at the University of Missouri training to be an elementary teacher, shares her experiences using AI assistants. She describes the AI as a realistic and stress-free method to practice teaching, likening it to batting practice for baseball players.

Logan Hovis [15:42]: "It really was like talking to a child. It was very, very well developed... a warm-up before a baseball game."

Malcolm Gladwell [18:11]: "AI allows us to slow things down... It feels like batting practice, giving concentrated time to improve skills."

10. Navigating AI Limitations and Ensuring Effectiveness

The conversation addresses the limitations of AI, such as the potential for AI to "hallucinate" or generate nonsensical responses. The importance of human oversight in training and interacting with AI assistants is emphasized to maintain efficacy and accuracy.

Sean English [14:56]: "AI can hallucinate... you always want to have a human interacting with the system to be able to go, hey, that's a little crazy."

11. The Future of AI in Education

Gladwell reflects on the broader implications of integrating AI into education. He argues that AI should not replace human teachers but rather augment their capabilities, enabling them to become more effective educators through tailored support and continuous practice.

Malcolm Gladwell [24:11]: "We don't want AI assistants to replace the teacher. We want AI assistants to help teachers turn themselves into even better teachers."

12. Conclusion

The episode concludes with Gladwell summarizing the dual role of AI in education: enhancing teacher training through responsive teaching methodologies and preserving the irreplaceable human elements of education, such as community and playful discussion. He underscores that the true potential of AI lies in its ability to support and elevate human expertise rather than supplant it.

Malcolm Gladwell [24:30]: "Real learning is born in pleasure, in community, in playful discussion... The magic only comes from human interaction, from a teacher who is skilled enough to inspire a class of nine-year-olds."

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Malcolm Gladwell [02:17]: "Deborah Ball worked magic. She never told Sean the right answer. She just led him to a place where he could discover it for himself."

• Amy Robertson [04:38]: "Students need to have a sense of agency in what happens in the classroom and like authentic agency where they can be legitimized as knowers."

• Logan Hovis [15:53]: "It really was like talking to a child. It was very, very well developed... a warm-up before a baseball game."

• Malcolm Gladwell [24:30]: "Real learning is born in pleasure, in community, in playful discussion... The magic only comes from human interaction, from a teacher who is skilled enough to inspire a class of nine-year-olds."

Final Thoughts

This episode of Revisionist History offers a compelling exploration of how AI assistants can revolutionize teacher training by embodying the principles of responsive teaching. Through real-world examples and expert insights, Malcolm Gladwell presents a nuanced perspective on the synergistic relationship between artificial intelligence and human educators, advocating for a future where technology enhances the deeply human aspects of teaching and learning.