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By Kristal Kinloch-Taylor and Jinhee Kim

Dr. Jinhee Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of STEM Education and Professional Studies, brings a wealth of international experience and a passion for educational development to her role. Born in Korea, Jinhee spent her early years in the Korean educational system. Later, her teenage years took her to South Africa, where she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Johannesburg. The British-influenced South African school system eased her transition to the United Kingdom, where she earned a master’s degree in international education and development from the University of Sussex. Next, she received a master’s degree in education from California State University and a Ph.D. in education from Seoul National University.

It was during her doctoral studies that Dr. Kim discovered a profound interest in research and pattern recognition. Before stepping into academia, Dr. Kim gained valuable experience working for UNESCO in Switzerland and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Korea.

Dr. Kim’s passion for research eventually led her to consider a career in academia. She accepted a faculty position at the University of Liverpool, initially working at its campus in China. This role included living in international faculty housing, which fostered rich interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations. She joined the faculty at ������ in July 2023.

Dr. Kim’s diverse background and commitment to educational development makes her an asset to ������. Recently, the Center for Faculty Development had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Kim.

For faculty new to AI, what is the best way to assist them in incorporating AI into their course design?

I think we should first be clear about our needs of using AI in our jobs—course design, teaching, and research or other areas, since simply using AI will NOT automatically make the perfect solution. Perhaps, we might have better and effective solutions to address those challenges without AI.

Once clear learning goals are set, we then need to understand different functions and characteristics of many AI applications and solutions that are available and choose the appropriate one that meets our need.

How can you minimize the potential fear that faculty have about using AI in their teaching practices?

We first need to examine where that fear, anxiety, and distrust toward AI and resistance to using AI come from so that we can better address that fear. But people usually have negative attitudes towards AI when they hold misconceptions about AI, because they are influenced by scientific movies or have a lack of knowledge of AI. People can also be fearful when they do not have experience using it.

In this sense, I think it is important to promote faculty AI literacy or the ability to understand, use, monitor, and critically reflect on AI applications without necessarily being able to develop AI models themselves.

Your recent areas of interest involve Human-AI Interaction and collaboration in education. Can you explain further?

In contrast to existing technologies, GenAI engages in more autonomous, personalized, and active interaction with students in a manner that mimics human interaction through roles such as a tutor and learning companion that have been inhabited by humans only in the past. Interactions with GenAI are dynamic rather than static, with continuous communication being exchanged within a learning context.

It would be naïve to presume that simply optimizing AI algorithms and providing new types and functionalities of AI would lead to learning gains. So, it is important to unpack the underlying human (students/teachers)-AI interaction processes and mechanisms and how communication between two heterogenous agents, human and machine, influence learning and teaching. Understanding this process means opening the black box of learning with AI.

I have two key focuses in my research: One is to better understand humans (students and teachers), and their process of working with AI. I explore and analyze the fine-grained students-AI interaction/or teachers-AI interaction on diverse learning tasks such as drawing tasks, academic writing tasks, collaborative argumentation, programming, math, and so on.

This understanding can allow us to identify the different needs, demands, and approaches in using AI and interaction processes. We can also identify the intended or unintended challenges during this interaction. In turn, these understandings can convert us to the insights and implications for AI-supported instruction and help us answer critical questions: What diverse roles can AI serve? What capacities do students and instructors need to develop? What instructional strategies and guidelines are necessary to support meaningful learning with AI? What learning environments need to be designed?

In parallel, we can develop human-centered AI in education, one that prioritizes the needs, abilities and experiences of students and teachers and leverages the collaboration between human control and AI automation to empower learning and teaching.

What were some of the key findings of a recent journal article titled "Types of Teacher-AI Collaboration in K-12 Classroom Instruction: Chinese Teachers' Perspective"?

The interest and demand for teacher-AI collaboration (TAC) have been increasing to the point of becoming a critical research and design challenge for AI in Education (AIED); however, the implementation of TAC is complex and challenging in K-12 schools. In practice, teachers are used to being the only teacher (change to person) responsible for the course and the change required to work efficiently in a team of colleagues is challenging even in a human-human collaborative teaching context. This change is profound as it is not just a method or single skill, but it actually changes the whole culture of teaching. Without formal AIED training, teachers are expected to jointly orchestrate classroom instruction in support of a fully packed curriculum that involves the planning and real-time management of diverse classroom activities alongside AI without a clear model or best practices to serve as guidelines for that joint orchestration. To fill such gaps in existing literature and address challenges in K-12 education, I explored different types of TAC and the potential benefits and obstacles of TAC through a Focus Group Interview with 30 leading Chinese teachers in AI Education facilitated by scenario development and the speed dating technique.

The study found that teachers anticipated six types of TAC, which are thematized as One Teach, One Observe; One Teach, One Assist; Co-teaching in Stations; Parallel Teaching in Online and Offline Classes; Differentiated Teaching; and Team Teaching. While teachers highlighted that TAC could support them in instructional design, teaching delivery, teacher professional development, and lowering grading load, they perceived a lack of explicit and consistent curriculum guidance, the dominance of commercial AI in schools, the absence of clear ethical guidelines, and teachers’ negative attitude toward AI as obstacles to TAC. 

What is “Eduarchitect” and how does it support the future of education?

I assume you reviewed my personal webpage. I made up the word combined by combining Edu(cation) and (Arc)hitect. I think it well reflects my areas of discipline (instructional design and technology), my teaching/research philosophy as well as my research areas (AI in education, Human-AI interaction, etc.…). I am working to design equitable and quality learning environments through connecting the dots between humans, technology and community and translating theory into practice and practice into theory. And we even reimage education and plan and build the model for future education. So, I am an Education Architect!

You are relatively new to the area. What have you enjoyed most about Norfolk, Virginia?

I spent my teens in Africa, so I love nature and outdoor activities. I enjoy hiking along the ocean in the Virginia Beach and Newport News areas. At the same time, I am interested in discovering and exploring historical sites since I am interested in world history. Recently, I traveled to OBX (the Outer Banks, North Carolina) and the historical districts in Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown with Dr. Xinyue Ren, my colleague in the IDT program, and enjoyed exploring the Wright Brothers National Memorial and learning about the area’s history and the early history of flight.