Australian teachers are among highest users of AI in classrooms around the world (theconversation.com)

The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) — a large study of 280,000 teachers across 55 education systems — finds Australian lower‑secondary teachers are among the world’s heaviest classroom users of AI: 66% reported using AI in the past year (fourth highest in the OECD, vs a 36% OECD average). Where Australian teachers use AI, it’s primarily for lesson‑planning and content summarisation (71% of AI users), rather than for analysing student performance (9% vs 28% OECD) or assessing work (15% vs 30% OECD). The survey also flags rising teacher stress (34% report frequent stress vs 19% OECD) and weaker preparation for classroom behaviour management (~50% positive in Australia vs 63% OECD), even as recent policy shifts require more applied teacher‑education content. For the AI/ML community, this is a clear signal of real‑world adoption patterns and unmet needs: strong demand for tools that speed lesson design, summarise curriculum content, and reduce administrative load, paired with hesitancy to deploy models that ingest student data. Technical priorities therefore include privacy‑preserving architectures (on‑device models, federated learning, differential privacy), curriculum‑aware fine‑tuning, explainability for teacher trust, and assessment tools that augment rather than replace professional judgement. Addressing workflow automation and behaviour‑management support could also help alleviate teacher stress and improve uptake of higher‑risk applications like automated grading.