Teacher, can I borrow a ruler to underline?

Anticipatory Education in Times of Artificial Intelligence

– Teacher, can I borrow a ruler to underline?

– You don’t need a ruler, you need something to draw a straight line.

I had that conversation many times with my students when they asked to borrow a ruler to underline. Some would stop and think, then smile when they found a solution—a sheet of paper, a card, a notebook cover. Others would tell me I wasn’t nice or that I didn’t want to help them.

My idea was to work on autonomy, creativity, and problem-solving. I wanted to invite them to think. Deep down, I believed that intelligence is not just accumulated knowledge, but the ability to solve difficulties and face uncertainty. And that simple exercise often became complex, because students were used to having teachers who gave them all the answers.

If we believe that education is not about delivering answers but about provoking thought, then the role of the educator should be to disrupt the comfort of the correct, quick, and easy answer. The teacher must challenge, encourage new perspectives, and push for alternative solutions.

However, this change has not yet happened on a large scale. Today, the image of the teacher who "knows everything" and "lectures in front of everyone" still dominates. The student listens, takes notes, memorizes, and then regurgitates the expected answers on a test. Knowledge is still seen as a product to be transferred, not a process to be constructed.

Now that there is artificial intelligence that "knows everything," what sense does it make to keep following that model?

In the age of AI, education must focus on thinking, anticipating, and connecting. This is what some call anticipatory education, which aims to prepare people capable of thinking about the future, solving complex problems, and adapting to changing contexts.

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The article analyzes the anticipatory development of dual education in Kazakhstan, highlighting the importance of a systemic approach and anticipatory thinking in vocational training. Click on the image to learn more.

This approach, which was created at a time when AI was not yet part of our lives, now emerges as a necessary proposal. If teachers integrated everyday problems or work-related challenges into the educational process, we could shape new generations with complex, adaptive thinking, better prepared for an uncertain world. This is an education that includes real-world issues, daily life, and work challenges as part of the learning process.

This approach challenges the traditional model and promotes training in systemic, adaptive, and creative thinking as the only way to respond to a constantly changing world.

To educate is not to apply formulas; it is to anticipate possible worlds. We need to lose our fear. We should not only teach how to answer questions, but also how to create them. As I write this article, bombs are falling on Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Palestine, and many feel that everything can change. We must acknowledge that the world is uncertain, and that artificial intelligence is creating tools that accelerate change at an unprecedented rate.

If we only teach how to answer, these young people—once they enter the workforce—won’t be able to answer anything, because the world will be completely different from the one they knew at school. To survive, they will need to think differently, adapt, and dare. But if they were never allowed to make mistakes, explore, or propose new solutions, fear will paralyze them.

Because they will be adults who must face an ever-changing world alone.