Cambridge report: English teachers across 13 countries call for rethink of AI policy, assessment and professional development

Cambridge released the research paper Shaping AI Policy and Practice in English Language Teaching, based on interviews conducted in early 2025 with 15 teachers and teacher trainers across 13 countries and six continents. The report finds practical benefits of generative AI in lesson preparation, personalised materials and feedback, alongside concerns about accuracy, bias, privacy and students outsourcing their thinking. It argues that access to AI tools alone will not deliver better learning, and that effective integration requires teacher expertise, sustained professional development and policies grounded in classroom practice.

The report offers verifiable classroom evidence for schools and teacher training systems: the value of AI in English teaching depends on teacher professional judgement and supporting policies rather than the tools alone. It directly shapes the direction of teacher training curricula and school AI use guidelines, and signals that education products need to address different linguistic and cultural contexts, privacy and bias. Its evidence limit is that the sample is 15 early adopters and the findings come from interviews rather than quantitative outcome research. Teacher training and professional development programmes need to include AI use judgement, output evaluation and classroom integration rather than tool operation alone. Schools and education product providers need to address privacy, bias, multilingual and cultural adaptation, and student dependence risks when procuring and designing AI tools.