Reflecting on AERA 2025: Conversations Around AI and the Future of Education
Authors: Yerin Seung; info@ciddl.org
CIDDL team attended the 2025 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in Denver, where we presented our work, State Artificial Intelligence Guidance for Students with Disabilities in K-12 Education. Throughout the week, it became increasingly clear that AI is not just a trending topic but a critical focus for the future of education. Across paper sessions, posters, and roundtables, scholars engaged deeply with the opportunities and challenges AI presents for teaching, learning, and educational systems. In this post, I would like to reflect on a few major themes that emerged and consider what they suggest for researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners moving forward.
Interdisciplinary Conversations Around AI in Education
One of the most striking aspects of AERA was the highly interdisciplinary nature of the conversations around AI. Researchers from educational technology, learning sciences, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and special education all brought valuable perspectives to the table. While the focus often differed, some emphasizing technical innovations, others examining pedagogical or ethical implications, this variability enriched the dialogue significantly. It underscored an important point: effective AI integration in education cannot be addressed by any one field alone. It requires collaboration across disciplinary lines to account for the complexity of teaching and learning in AI-supported environments. AERA’s cross-disciplinary setting created a powerful opportunity for scholars to share emerging research, ongoing challenges, and visions for AI’s role in different educational contexts and with diverse learner populations.
Tension Between the Benefits and Risks of AI
There was a strong sense of optimism about AI’s potential to transform education. Many presenters discussed how AI can reduce teacher workload, especially in areas such as designing personalized learning plans or providing real-time feedback to students in settings where time and resources are limited. At the same time, significant concerns were raised regarding cognitive skill development. A recurring theme was the possibility that students might increasingly rely on AI to bypass rather than engage in critical thinking processes. Several presenters emphasized early evidence suggesting that while AI can scaffold learning, it can also inadvertently encourage cognitive shortcuts that undermine the development of higher-order thinking skills like problem-solving and critical thinking. Particularly for younger learners, there is a risk that overdependence on generative AI tools could hinder the growth of essential cognitive capacities over time. Balancing the powerful benefits of AI with thoughtful attention to its potential unintended consequences is a tension that educators and researchers must address.
The Need for Learning Theories and Frameworks That Reflect the Age of AI
Given the widespread availability and usage of generative AI tools, it is no longer a question of whether students will engage with AI, but how we will support them in doing so responsibly and effectively. Several sessions discussed the importance of developing clear classroom guidelines for AI use. Yet many acknowledged that policies alone are insufficient without deeper instructional strategies to foster students’ critical engagement with AI tools. The need for AI literacy emerged as a pressing theme—preparing students not only to use AI but to understand its affordances, limitations, and ethical implications. However, a major gap remains: there are currently few established theories or frameworks to guide AI integration into teaching and learning. Current learning theories, developed in largely pre-AI contexts, do not fully capture the unique challenges and opportunities posed by tools that can generate content, simulate decision-making, and collaborate with learners. As a field, we must either extend existing frameworks or develop new ones that better align with the realities of AI-supported learning environments.
Final Thoughts
Reflecting on AERA 2025, it is evident that AI is rapidly shaping the future of education. The interdisciplinary conversations, the careful balancing of opportunities and risks, and the growing call for theoretical and practical guidance all point to an important moment for our field. As researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners, we must continue to engage in cross-disciplinary dialogue, critically examine the implications of AI use, and collaboratively develop strategies to prepare students for a future where AI will be an integral part of their learning and lives. With intentionality and collaboration, we can harness the potential of AI to support equitable, meaningful, and enduring educational experiences for all learners.
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