Opinion PieceStanford HAIMar 15, 2025
AI Helps Math Teachers Build Better "Scaffolds"
Andrew Myers
Read the original →What follows is our summary, written for district staff. It is not the paper. If this is going to inform a decision, read the original.
AI Helps Math Teachers Build Better "Scaffolds"
Article Summary
This article describes a study investigating techniques to help teachers incorporate better scaffolds in their middle school math classrooms. Scaffolding is a set of teaching practices that aim to give students access to rigorous content without lowering expectations. Specifically, the study evaluated a set of techniques used to generate warm-up activities and found that the most successful included providing an LLM with access to the original curriculum materials and a well crafted prompt.
Related across the site
ResearchStudy: AI-Assisted Tutoring Boosts Students’ Math SkillsA paper on using an LLM to support human tutors. Tutors became more effective, and the weakest tutors gained the most.Research6 Tenets of Postplagiarism: Writing in the Age of Artificial IntelligenceDr. Sarah Elaine Eaton explores how AI is reshaping writing and academic integrity in “6 Tenets of Postplagiarism.”