Lecture 'The Language of Science Education in Times of GenAI: a critical roundtable discussion'

Generative AI is fundamentally transforming educational practices. Students can now ask GenAI to explain the material in everyday language, generate a visual summary, or connect them to another field entirely. Educational platforms and publishers increasingly embed similar functionalities directly into learning environments.

This development raises fundamental questions about the language of learning and knowledge-making. If AI can translate disciplinary knowledge into almost any genre or register, what does this do to how students learn communicative practices of a particular discipline? What is gained, and what is lost, when knowledge is continuously recontextualized? And what happens to the boundaries between experts and non-experts when access to disciplinary discourse becomes so easily mediated?

We have invited Prof Dr. Felicitas MacGilchrist (University of Oldenburg) and Prof Dr. John Airey (Stockholm University) to tackle these questions in a roundtable discussion.