Metacognition has been at the centre of my work for 15 years. I know how hard it is to help students pause, reflect, and take ownership of their learning, especially with the rigour of the DP. For me, AI Tutors are the first tool that makes that kind of reflection a regular part of the process.
When students began using Toddle’s AI Tutors, they started reflecting on how they were learning instead of only focusing on what they were producing. What stood out to me most was how the impact rippled outward. As students reflected more deeply, teachers gained sharper insights into their thinking, and those insights began to shape classroom practice, and eventually our whole-school curriculum.
Here is how AI Tutors made a difference for our students, our teachers, and our programme.
Insight 1: Students gained insight into their own learning
One of my Lang&Lit students was aiming for a 6 but working at a 5. Through her ongoing conversations with the AI Tutor, she began to see for herself what was needed to close that gap. The tutor became a safe, ever-present thinking partner, nudging her to notice where her reasoning was thin and how her writing could be sharper. From there, she built her own plan to reach the 6 she was aiming for.
Watching her uncover that pathway and take ownership of it brought me real joy as her teacher. To imagine that happening at scale — every 4 finding a way to a 5, every 5 to a 6 — is extraordinary.
Insight 2: Teachers gained insight into student thinking
What has been game changing for me as a teacher is seeing how students interact with the tutors. The transcripts reveal gaps that would be almost impossible to catch in class, and then I can adjust the tutor to meet students where they are. For example, a few students showed strong analysis but weak evidence, so I fine tuned the tutor to focus on evidence drills. Others understood strategies but struggled with methodology, so I built in stronger checks before drafting.
Seeing those patterns laid out so clearly, and being able to adjust the prompts to push in the right direction, has been powerful. It has created a cycle where the tutor surfaced insights, I acted on them, and then reshaped the tutor to keep raising the bar. It feels like an infinite loop of personalisation and targeted practice, and that has been fantastic to experience.
Insight 3: Our school gained insight into cohort-wide learning patterns
One of our goals as a school has always been to make planning and curriculum design more evidence-driven. With AI Tutors, we finally had the insight we’d been seeking. Instead of relying on impressions or scattered notes, we could see strengths, areas for improvement, and next steps laid out clearly for the whole cohort.
Aggregated views surfaced patterns we often miss in live lessons: macro-to-micro analysis gaps, methodology issues, and time-management pinch points. That visibility connected assessment, planning, and curriculum design, giving us evidence to refine tomorrow’s lesson and shape next year’s curriculum with equal intent.
At a time when many worry that AI leads to cognitive offloading, our experience shows the opposite: when AI makes thinking visible, it strengthens metacognition, sharpens teaching, and raises the bar for learning at every level. For me, that was the real win.
