At the Holmen school district in Wisconsin, school leaders and staff who are part of the behavior intervention team are now experimenting with generative artificial intelligence to address student behavior challenges.
The district鈥檚 student services director used Gemini, Google鈥檚 generative AI model, to create a custom AI assistant that helps school leaders and behavior interventionists brainstorm and align student support with the district鈥檚 social-emotional learning intervention playbook, said Ben Tashner, the associate principal at Holmen Middle School. (The school isn鈥檛 inputting personally identifiable information when using Gemini to brainstorm ideas鈥攋ust generic situational information, Tashner said.)
The school, which has about 900 students, has one behavior interventionist that the administrative team collaborates with to support students鈥� specific needs, Tashner said. Together, they鈥檝e found that the custom AI assistant is helpful in providing ideas to begin the development of interventions, he said.
The generative AI tool provides another layer in the intervention team鈥檚 discussion to ensure they鈥檙e providing the best support for students, Tashner said. The output can sometimes make him think, 鈥渢hat makes sense鈥攚hy didn鈥檛 we think of that? But it does it in a simplified way, and you just edit what you get,鈥� he said.
In a video conversation with Education Week, Tashner discussed how he and his staff use generative AI for behavior interventions and what effects it has had so far.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What prompted your use of AI to address student behavior?
I meet with teachers every week. We鈥檙e hearing a lot of similar things, like, 鈥淭his student struggles with putting effort into work,鈥� 鈥淭his student doesn鈥檛 do any of the work to learn,鈥� or 鈥淭hese students have certain tendencies to avoid work.鈥�
What is our next step? We need to be solution-focused. As all things, behaviors are shown because kids are trying to communicate in a certain way and they can鈥檛 or they鈥檙e lacking those skills to be able to communicate effectively.
Our belief is that we have skills that we need to teach students. How do we help students find success when these barriers are getting in the way? So we鈥檝e kind of been playing around [with Google Gemini] to do this.
Could you give an example of how this works?
Gemini, in the background, has our SEL intervention playbook. Phase one would be getting the student buy-in that we need to work together on a skill. Phase two would be, we鈥檙e going to practice this skill in isolation, one on one. Phase three is the student applying it in the setting.
If I have an 8th grade student who keeps throwing food during lunch鈥擨鈥檝e talked to them eight times, they鈥檝e gotten lunch detention, all these things, this is dragging on. I go to Gemini to ask questions about next steps and skills to work on and conversation starters based on the SEL intervention playbook. [For instance, I could say to the student], 鈥淵ou find joy in the reaction from peers when you throw food. How do you get peers鈥� attention without throwing food?鈥�
We鈥檙e still working out what this looks like, but it helps align [what we鈥檙e doing] with the skills students are lacking.
What was this process like before using AI?
You would have those conversations and try different things. They might not work, and we might revert back to, 鈥淥K. Now what鈥檚 next?鈥� You might reach out to other resources, networking with other people. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 a situation I have. Do you have anything similar?鈥� With the AI tool, the part where I was researching online myself or trying to network with other people, the tool is pulling it all in there with the focus we鈥檝e set up in the background. That part has been nice. You see it, and you鈥檙e like, 鈥淥h, yeah. That鈥檚 a great idea. Why don鈥檛 we have the conversation that way?鈥� But it鈥檚 able to pull that up right away.
How has this tech-oriented approach been most helpful?
It has really highlighted [specific skills gaps in students] that we might not have noticed right away. So we talk with the students and the family about the intervention, and they鈥檙e all like, 鈥淵eah, this is an issue. How do we help with this?鈥� We get that buy-in and investment to help the student with that skill.
Do you have any concerns about using AI for this purpose?
With it being programmed for our specific [SEL intervention] phases, a downside could be that the variety of responses may be limited the longer we use it within our system. It鈥檚 so geared towards how we wanted it built that it wouldn鈥檛 be able to branch off; that we鈥檒l get the same responses every time.
Do you have any advice for school leaders?
Learn what鈥檚 out there for you to utilize. There鈥檚 some fear of [AI] taking over or being used the wrong way. A 鈥渨hy鈥� for me is how to use [AI] appropriately so then we can also teach students how to use AI effectively and appropriately鈥攕o they鈥檙e not using it just to get an answer but to learn.
