New technology to transform professional development in schools
Published: 29 May 2026
Professional learning and student assessment in schools is set to be transformed, thanks to a first of its kind advance in education technology led by the University of Glasgow.
Professional learning and student assessment in schools is set to be transformed, thanks to a first of its kind advance in education technology led by the University of Glasgow.
Education experts are launching a new platform that will help teachers to make informed professional judgements in real time, by leveraging advances in artificial intelligence to automate the capture and analysis of evidence of practice.
Through positioning teachers at the centre of evidence of practice, educational research, and experiential knowledge, Deliberative Instructional Agents (DIAs) shift professional learning from an often disconnected and retrospective activity, to one that is continuous and embedded within real-time teaching.
The ongoing professional development of teachers is fundamentally important for education quality, and has been shown to improve teacher satisfaction and retention and pupil learning outcomes. However, increasing workload pressures and other school responsibilities prevent teachers from dedicating time to professional learning, despite the best of intentions.
Dr Thomas Cowhitt, a teacher-educator and researcher at the University of Glasgow, embarked on a four year Research and Development partnership with Dr Matt Gibson at The Glasgow Academy, to design and develop DIAs. He said:
"The use of evidence to guide teaching is central to improving schools and strengthening professional practice, with teachers increasingly expected to draw on multiple sources of information to inform instructional decisions.
"Yet we know that accessibility, relevance and lack of time all make it difficult for teachers to engage with these sources when deciding what should happen next in their classrooms. As a result, instruction is largely shaped by experience and intuition, with limited opportunity to be responsive to student needs or to explore alternative approaches. Crucially, this means that teachers often miss what we call ‘critical moments’ – where a student says or does something that could have been pivotal to the learning process.
“That’s where DIAs come in, by supporting teachers in interpreting those moments through structured reflection and encourage rehearsal of alternative instructional moves through simulation. Improving teaching is not simply a matter of increasing access to evidence or research – as has often been assumed - but of creating the right conditions for teachers to engage meaningfully with evidence of practice, pedagogical research, and experiential knowledge in ways that inform professional judgement.”
Dr Matt Gibson, Rector of The Glasgow Academy, said: "The drivers for technology in education is key: this research and development work is a rare case in which educators are solving existing problems using technology. This is very different from what tends to happen, which is the EdTech world developing technical solutions they can sell."
DIAs should be understood as part of an emerging sociotechnical infrastructure for professional learning. Their significance lies in the potential to reconfigure when and how teachers learn from practice by embedding opportunities for professional learning. However, this potential will only be realised if such systems are designed in ways that preserve teacher agency, maintain transparency in how evidence and research are mobilised, and remain responsive to the complexities of classroom practice.
DIAs are currently being trialled in secondary and primary schools in Scotland and England, with potential for a wider UK and global rollout.
This research was launched at event on Tuesday May 26, taking place at the University of Glasgow and sponsored by the Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
First published: 29 May 2026