Universities urged to rethink teaching as AI reshapes learning

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how students access information, read, write and think, lecturers are being challenged to rethink their teaching methods and protect the human experiences that make learning meaningful.

The need to adapt was a key theme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) fourth Innovations in the Science of Teaching and Learning Conference, which brought together more than 300 academics and students from different disciplines to consider how higher education should respond to a rapidly changing world.

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The discussions extended beyond technology to examine the impact of trauma on learning, whose knowledge is valued in university curricula and how lecturers can create more inclusive and relevant learning environments.

Conference host and UKZN Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Professor Thabo Msibi, said universities were operating at a critical moment as global uncertainty, contested ideas about truth and identity, and rapid technological change increasingly entered the classroom.

“When the world changes, teaching and learning cannot remain unchanged,” said Msibi, calling for a more interdisciplinary and human-centred approach to education.

AI cannot replace the teacher

The impact of AI on education emerged as a central concern, with Professor Wayne Holmes of University College London questioning the speed at which universities were adopting the technology without sufficient evidence of its effectiveness, safety and impact on students.

Holmes, who teaches Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence and Education, argued that AI could enhance teachers’ work but could not replace them. He warned that institutions risked embracing technology before fully understanding its consequences.

“On the surface of it, AI is amazing, but the reality is far different,” he said, calling for greater regulation and cautioning that AI could offer “short-term gain” while creating “long-term pain”.

Professor Oscar Koopman, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University, argued that the debate was not simply about regulating AI, but about protecting the process through which students develop their own knowledge and understanding.

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While the internet expanded access to information, Koopman said AI increasingly intervened in the process of reading, interpreting, comparing, writing and thinking.

He urged universities to protect what he described as the “soul” of education: the uncertainty, reflection and intellectual struggle through which students develop their own understanding.

The challenge for lecturers is to ensure that when AI can produce an answer almost instantly, students still have opportunities to question, analyse and work through problems themselves.

Understanding what students bring into the classroom

Rethinking teaching also means recognising that learning is shaped by students’ experiences beyond the classroom.

Professor Sinegugu Duma, a UKZN academic and internationally recognised scholar in gender-based violence, forensic nursing and higher education transformation, called for trauma-informed teaching to become “embedded in the DNA of universities”.

“Students may arrive in the classroom carrying the effects of Gender Based Violence, protests, food insecurity, cyberbullying, and broader social and historical inequalities.”

Duma argued that lecturers must consider not only what they teach, but how they teach and whether students experience physical and virtual learning environments as “psychologically safe”.

Her argument highlighted the importance of creating spaces in which students can participate in learning while recognising the personal and social challenges that may affect their experience.

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Whose knowledge is being taught?

The conference also challenged lecturers to reconsider the knowledge and perspectives represented in university curricula.

Professor Sandew Hira, an independent scholar and decolonial thinker from The Hague in the Netherlands, questioned the dominance of Eurocentric knowledge systems, arguing that much of the academic material used at universities continued to originate in the Global North.

He called on institutions in the Global South, particularly in Africa, to become producers rather than primarily consumers of knowledge by developing textbooks and curricula that reflect African and other Global South perspectives.

Hira argued that decolonising disciplines required more than adding alternative voices to existing curricula. It involved reconstructing disciplines and creating new knowledge systems.

Professor Siddique Motala, a civil engineering professor at the University of Cape Town, showed how technology could challenge established narratives through his work on “counter-surveying”.

In his address, Cartography, Heritage and Hauntings, Motala explored how mapping, technology and community memories could help recover marginalised histories, including those of communities affected by forced removals during apartheid.

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His approach challenged lecturers to view engineering and technology not only as technical tools, but also as ways of recovering and preserving heritage.

“As educators, are we exploring other ways of knowing and being?” Motala asked, urging academics to retell histories without “primitivising” communities and to create space for ancestral voices to be heard on their own terms.

A more human-centred approach to education

Together, the discussions highlighted how technology, trauma, inequality, identity and history intersect in the classroom, influencing how students learn and whose knowledge is recognised.

For lecturers, the challenge is not simply to introduce new technologies or update course material, but to reconsider how knowledge is developed, how students are supported and how different perspectives are represented.

As AI continues to change the educational landscape, the conference reinforced the need for teaching methods that adapt to new realities while preserving critical thinking, reflection, human connection and meaningful learning.