For their Term 1 History assessment, Year 10 students researched and delivered a speech on democracy while working within Barker’s AI Assessment Scale which provides structured guidance on appropriate AI use for specific learning activities. This is based on the system developed by Leon Furze. For this task, students operated within the “explore, generate, and structure” category of the scale, whereby they had permission to use AI to support idea development while remaining responsible for writing the final speech script.

Within this context, the research focuses on the impact of AI on student thinking when AI use is constrained. Additionally, it sought to understand how students navigated these guidelines in practice, where thinking is inherently iterative, often ‘messy’, and does not always sit neatly within fixed categories of use.

The research examines this through how AI shapes the way students think in the research and writing process by impacting where cognitive effort is concentrated and where it is displaced, and how students understand and describe their own role as thinkers and authors when AI has been part of the process.

To explore these questions, the project draws on three complementary sources of data. Firstly, students from two History classes completed a written reflection as part of the assessment process, providing insight into how they used AI and how they understood its role in their work. Seven students then took part in in-depth interviews, which allowed for a closer look at how they made decisions, experienced uncertainty, and navigated the boundaries of the framework in practice. Finally, students were asked to categorise a series of AI use scenarios according to the AI Assessment Scale, revealing how well students understand the framework itself and where uncertainty remains.

Initial findings will begin to be published in the coming weeks sharing what the students are telling us about learning, agency and thinking in an AI‑enabled classroom.