Why we are starting the Acarise Research Lab

AI is already in students’ work and in teachers’ planning. Ask a general assistant to solve a quadratic or plan an essay and it will, politely and at once. Whether that helps children learn, or quietly does their thinking for them, is one of the big open questions in education.

Schools are already deciding. They are choosing AI tools, writing policies and answering parents’ questions, mostly on professional judgement and on what suppliers say about their own products. There is very little independent evidence to go on.

That is why we are starting the Acarise Research Lab, and why we are opening it to the whole education community.

What the lab will study

We are starting with four questions.

• Help, or do the thinking? When does AI help a student reason, and when does it hand over the answer?
• Can teachers trust it? How often does an AI’s judgement of what a student understands agree with a teacher marking the same work?
• What should “safe” mean? What should AI tools in schools be checked against, and who should do the checking?
• Is it fair to every learner? Does the same answer, written differently, get the same mark, including for students with SEND or learning English as an additional language?

How the lab works

The lab looks at AI in learning in three ways: with repeatable tests that any AI tool can be put through, in classrooms with schools that choose to take part, and by asking teachers and leaders what they need and what worries them.

Acarise founded the lab and pays its running costs. That is exactly why it needs rules that make its findings worth reading:

• Everything is published, whatever the result, including results that are bad for Acarise.
• Every public claim links to the evidence behind it, and corrections are logged in public.
• Research data is de-identified, kept apart from the product and never used to train AI models.
• Teachers who contribute are credited in the work they shaped, if they choose to be.

Why a think tank

Researchers cannot answer these questions on their own, and neither can companies. Teachers see what AI does to learning every day. Leaders are making decisions about it now. Parents are living with it at the kitchen table.

So the lab will be shaped by a think tank that is open to anyone who cares how children learn. Members can:

• meet teachers, leaders, researchers, parents and EdTech builders from the UK, the Gulf and beyond;
• talk through what AI changes in marking, feedback and assessment, and what it shouldn’t;
• share practical ways of using AI in lessons, and where to draw the line;
• put forward questions, and vote on the one the lab takes on each year;
• test ideas in their own classroom, with chances to co-author studies that help schools everywhere;
• read a research letter each term, in plain language.

Joining is free. It has nothing to do with buying or using Acarise, and you can leave at any time.

Take part

Join the think tank and we will send you the first research letter. If you would rather talk it through first, book 30 minutes with me (opens in a new tab).

Adam, founder of Acarise