James Bowyer, aged 26, from Brighton, recognises the barriers teachers face in responding to students’ individual needs. He is creating TeachersRadar, an AI-based lesson planning system which is designed to help reduce the workload of teachers by helping them create and adapt lesson plans based on student needs and real-time progress.
“The educational divide at 18 is stark and has echoes throughout an individual’s life. I see a new future where teachers can enable students to achieve more by using AI to apply psychology of learning research practically – to use technology, to equalise education.”
About James
James is a former engineering student who had a unique route into university; after his BTEC course he demonstrated his coding skills to professors via numerous emails.
He observed the barriers to success that many young people feel because of a “one-size-fits-all” system and lack of a personalised approach. James achieved academic success while studying AI in University but understands that this success came from a specialised education not available to all students.
The problem
44% of teachers plan to leave teaching within 5 years, with 52% saying workload-mainly planning of lessons/prep-was unmanageable.
Forced to spend time writing out detailed activities and connecting these to the relevant national curriculum to comply with Ofsted regulations, teachers struggle for time to adapt plans to their students’ needs, and often do not have time to understand where individual students are struggling.
“Gaps in school education exist because of private education, and high workloads for public teachers – gaps we can remove. I think teachers are the ones who can best enable that – especially if we can free up their time and reduce their stress.”
The bold idea
TeachersRadar is an AI-based lesson planning system to enable teachers to adapt their lesson plans based on student needs and progress. After teaching a lesson, teachers will receive an automated report on their students’ current, to-the-moment knowledge gaps.
The report is made with a tailored quiz students take after the lesson, the date from which is used to automatically draft the next lesson plan. It will utilise AI written content aligned with the National Curriculum, and provide real time data to support student progress.
This tool has the potential to save teachers three hours per week by assisting them with their lesson planning using AI. With reduced time spent on lesson planning, James hopes to reduce teachers’ stress over time, increase their understanding of effective teaching practices, and free them up to provide students with a more personalised education experience.
“Since I left school I’ve wanted to make education better. I am relentless and won’t stop until we see access to top education affordably provided to public students on par with that of private education – regardless of the economic status of parents, region, and, one day, country.”
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