Teaching students to think and learn through questions

Share AI for Educators now available in Portuguese AI for Educators now available in Portuguese Learning through active participation, step by step AI for Educators now available in Portuguese Learning through active participation, step by step On Teachers’ Day, we celebrate those who help us learn. A good question can change the course of a lesson. It can bring an unspoken question to light, open up another way to solve a problem, or help someone recognize what they already know. Teachers do this work every day: they know their students, choose how to introduce an idea, and guide them from their first attempt to understanding.

Set in a university classroom, the campaign takes a humorous look at the changing relationship between teachers and students and celebrates the role of educators in a world with AI.

Today, we are launching the AI for Educators ⁠ (opens in a new window) course in Brazilian Portuguese on OpenAI Academy, OpenAI’s free learning platform. Designed for educators in primary, secondary, and higher education, the course shows how to use AI to plan lessons, create activities and assessments, and prepare communications while preserving educators’ pedagogical judgment.

Study Mode helps you explore a subject ⁠ (opens in a new window) step by step, with questions, hints, explanations, and checks for understanding. Developed in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and experts in pedagogy, the feature aims to encourage active participation and reflection on one’s own reasoning.

To turn on Study Mode, select Study from the tools menu in ChatGPT.

A student reviewing biology, for example, might ask: “I’m studying enzymes. Ask me one question at a time, wait for my answer, and help me identify what I need to review.”

Teachers can also try Study Mode with subjects they know well, looking at whether the questions encourage reasoning and whether the explanations are appropriate for their class.

In a science lesson on evaporation, for example, a teacher might ask students to investigate why clothes dry on a clothesline. After exploring the topic with Study Mode, each student writes their own explanation and a question to discuss in class, without referring back to the conversation. The teacher can use these responses to identify what needs to be revisited with the class.

This Teachers’ Day, we invite you to experiment: explore the AI for Educators course, try Study Mode, and discover how these tools can be useful in different teaching contexts. Technology can open up new ways to learn, but it is teachers who know their students, ask the most important questions, and help turn curiosity into knowledge.