Bloom's Sixth

By Doug Ward As I prepared to speak to undergraduates about generative artificial intelligence last October, I struggled with analogies to explain large language models. Those models are central to the abilities of generative AI. They have analyzed billions of words, billions of lines of code, and hundreds of millions of images. That training allows them to predict sequences of words, generate computer code and images, and create coherent narratives at speeds humans cannot match. Even programmers don’t fully…

After third grade, elementary students spend little time on in-class writing assignments, even though research shows that additional time improves both the quality of writing and the comprehension of written work. That’s the distressing news from the Hechinger Report, whose recent article explores research in K-12 writing instruction. In English classes, U.S. students write an average of 1.6 pages a week, and most assignments (in English and in other classes) usually require a…