As technology continues to shift the way we teach and manage our professional development, it’s only natural to wonder – how can AI support teachers in their action research journeys? In collaboration with Richard Smith and the Co-Founders of Noticing, we have been exploring this very question.
As part of these efforts, Richard and I launched the AI-in-Mentoring Special Interest Group (SIG) within MenTRnet in February 2025, a pilot initiative dedicated to exploring whether and how AI can support teacher research and mentoring practices for Exploratory Action Research (EAR). From February to April, we will follow a flipped learning approach, integrating hands-on exploration of AI tools with structured mentoring activities across different stages of EAR.
Each session will focus on a key aspect of EAR and explore how AI might support teachers at that stage. Between sessions, participants will work in pairs, maintain reflective journals to document their experiences using AI, and later engage in whole-group discussions on the affordances and limitations of AI-driven teacher-research and mentoring.
The pilot programme will include discussions on ethical dimensions, ensuring that participants approach AI use critically. We will share reflections from the programme in Action-Research.AI, helping to disseminate knowledge and invite broader discussion within MenTRnet and beyond. By integrating AI tools into mentoring, we do not aim to replace human mentors but rather to supplement the process, critically evaluate their use, and develop strategies to guide mentees effectively.
Some of the questions I look forward to investigating include:
- How can mentors guide mentees to use AI tools ethically and responsibly in their research?
- How can AI biases affect teacher-research, and what strategies can mentors use to address them?
- How can AI be used as a support tool rather than a decision-maker in teacher-research?
If you are a teacher-researcher, how have you used AI in your research? If you are a mentor, how have your mentees engaged with AI? Let’s continue the conversation!
Şirin Soyöz Yılmaz
Image credit: https://ideogram.ai/
