#234 HoD Space ep5: AI resource creation, exam marking, supporting science teachers

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Access the show notes here: podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/234-hod-space-ep5-ai-resource-creation-exam-marking-supporting-science-teachers

In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss:

1. AI resource creation Craig leads on a topic he expects them to disagree about, with Jo describing herself as an AI sceptic who is nonetheless noticing that most of the resources in her latest Gems post show signs of AI involvement. Craig sets out how he works: putting the ethical questions about training data to one side, investing heavily in the first conversation, challenging the output, and asking the AI to summarise its design principles for next time. Jo reports a quick test of three tools on area of a triangle with exact trig values, and they discuss whether AI could ever match Don Steward, whether it will make teachers better resource designers, and the time-saving uses HoD Space members shared in a recent thread.

2. AI and exam marking Jo brings this one, prompted by what she describes as the heaviest remarks and appeals season she has known, with parents now requesting scripts and errors still surfacing only at appeal. She asks whether exam boards should move to AI marking. Craig makes the case for examining as professional development, then draws on his conversation with Daisy Christodoulou about early automated essay marking, gaming the system and comparative judgement. They consider where AI might outperform human markers, why a mark lost to a machine may feel less forgivable than one lost to a person, and why Jo has declined an AI marking trial for her own department.

3. Maths in science Jo picks up a HoD Space post on numeracy across the curriculum, a phrase she would rather replace with maths in other subjects. Drawing on her experience as both a parent and a head of maths, she describes science lessons using calculators, rearranging formulae and standard form well before the maths curriculum reaches them, and makes the case for each department knowing what the other teaches and when. Craig recalls a disagreement with Adam Boxer about lining up equals signs, and the pair discuss how to share approaches, such as avoiding "move it over the equals sign", without criticising colleagues' teaching.