Over the past year, several AI literacy frameworks for both teachers and learners have been published.
This article briefly introduces two different frameworks for teachers. UNESCO published its own framework for both teachers and learners in autumn 2024, and a team of researchers (Filo et al., 2024) published a framework in November 2024, in collaboration with teachers and learners, which seems to be very useful.
In Finland, the Ministry of Education and the Finnish National Agency for Education are preparing recommendations on the use of AI in early childhood education and training. These will be published in spring 2025.
UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Teachers
The UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers[i] was launched in September 2024. The framework focuses on teachers’ lifelong professional development and includes five key points.
The framework aims to ensure that teachers are equipped to use AI responsibly and effectively, while minimising potential risks to students and society.
- The human-centred approach defines the values and critical attitudes that teachers need to develop towards human–AI interactions. Teachers are encouraged to always place human rights and human welfare needs at the centre of AI in education. Teachers are encouraged to develop critical approaches to assessing the benefits and risks of AI, to care about human agency and responsibility, and to understand the social and civic implications of AI in the AI era.
- Ethics of AI: Teachers are aware of the basic ethical principles related to AI and understand their importance, recognise the human-centred nature of AI and the central role of people in all stages and aspects of AI development. AI ethics includes the key ethical values, principles, regulations, institutional laws and codes of practice that are important for teachers to understand and apply, drawn from the rapidly expanding body of knowledge on AI ethics and its implications for education.
- The foundations and applications of AI defines the basic knowledge and practical skills that teachers need to support the selection, application and creative tailoring of AI tools to build student-centred AI-assisted teaching and learning environments. Teachers are expected to understand the definition of AI, basic knowledge of how AI works and the main categories of AI technologies. They should also have the necessary skills to assess the usefulness and limitations of AI tools.
- AI pedagogy: teachers can identify and assess the pedagogical benefits of AI applications and choose appropriate tools to support instructional design, pedagogy and assessment. Teachers need to develop the ability to critically assess when and how AI can be used in teaching and learning in an ethical and human-centred way, and to design and implement inclusive AI-assisted teaching and learning practices.
- AI for professional development: teachers are aware of the potential of AI to support their continuous professional development and are motivated to use AI for professional lifelong learning. Given the rapid development of AI, teachers need guidance on how to continue their professional development in educational environments with increasing interaction between humans and AI.
The aspects of the framework are interlinked and complementary, not separate. Effective teaching (with or without AI) requires a holistic approach that combines different areas of expertise.
For example, a teacher’s ability to apply AI pedagogy is influenced by their understanding of the basics of AI, their awareness of AI guidelines and their commitment to continuous professional development. Similarly, a teacher’s ability to cope with the ethical problems of AI is influenced by their understanding of the basics of AI and their experience of applying AI in teaching. Skills in one area can enhance skills in another. A deeper understanding of the fundamentals of AI can improve a teacher’s ability to apply the pedagogical and ethical principles of AI, and continuous professional development will improve a teacher’s understanding of all these aspects.
The framework stresses that AI tools should complement, not replace, the vital roles and responsibilities of teachers in education.
AI tools should complement, not replace, the vital roles and responsibilities of teachers in education.
Framework for teachers’ and students’ AI competences

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The second and relatively new framework for teachers’ and students’ AI competences, developed with teachers and students, defines four key competences [ii]:
- Identification of AI mechanisms and their operation: An understanding of the principles of how AI works helps to assess the potential and limitations of its use.
- Effective and informed use of AI: The ability to create effective inputs and to critically review the results.
- AI Agency, proactive and value-generating utilisation of AI: Using AI responsibly and creatively to create added value.
- Ethical use: The use of AI should be based on ethical principles.
The framework also outlines the values, attitudes and knowledge needed to deal with AI in education, to help prepare teachers and students for the AI-saturated world.
According to the proposed framework, identifying AI mechanisms is a critical skill for both teachers and students, as it lays the foundation for navigating and critically processing AI applications in different contexts.
Understanding the principles of how AI works will enable students to better assess the potential, limitations and ethical implications of AI applications in everyday life.
Effective and informed use of AI involves understanding how to create a feed to achieve the desired results and being able to identify the right AI tool for a given task. The third component involves critically examining the results produced by AI tools, assessing their accuracy, identifying potential biases, and understanding the ethical implications of their use in everyday life.
AI Agency means understanding that ethical and fair use of AI means to empower people without replacing their contributions. This approach requires a deep understanding of the potential and limitations of AI. AI agency involves the active and creative use of AI to empower people, not just its passive use. This emphasises the creative application of AI in problem solving and value creation, which is a major advantage in today’s world. This will enable people to use AI in a positive way to impact their lives and the world around them. At the same time, it emphasises the need to understand human–machine collaboration and to critically evaluate the results of AI.
The ethical use of AI aims to help learners make good decisions. Fairness, privacy, morality and responsible decision-making should be emphasised to learners in the use and design of AI tools. Ethical use of AI means identifying and correcting biases and distortions in AI systems, reducing inequalities, and promoting important human values and the well-being of society. Ethics also requires careful assessment of the long-term effects of AI, such as the degradation of human capabilities, discrimination, or the manipulation of human perceptions. At the same time, it emphasises the responsibility and active role of individuals in preventing these challenges.
Fairness, privacy, morality and responsible decision-making should be emphasised to learners when using AI tools.
Finnish AI recommendations
In October 2024, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Finnish National Agency for Education issued the first part of the AI recommendations for consultation. The following key criteria have been extracted from it:
- Understanding how AI works and its implications is a prerequisite for the responsible and safe use of AI. This requires a critical assessment of the potential and limitations of AI and a holistic consideration of the benefits and drawbacks.
- Before implementing AI in education, it is necessary to ensure that users have sufficient understanding and ability to interpret and critically evaluate the information generated by AI.
- A key challenge for education and training is to equip learners with skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, source criticism and creativity in the use of AI.
- In a digitalised and globalised world, these skills are a prerequisite for active participation and for ensuring freedom of expression and democracy.
- The ethics of AI and the ethical use of technology will become a key issue in education and training.
The final formulations of the recommendations and supporting materials will be published in 2025 to support early childhood education and care, teaching and training and learning.
At the Finnish Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI) AI training in October 2024, teachers who attended were asked how necessary they thought these recommendations were. The answer was clear: 98% of teachers answered that the recommendations were necessary or very necessary.
Sources
[i] UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers (2024) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104
[ii] Filo, Y., Rabin, E. & Mor, Y. An Artificial Intelligence Competency Framework for Teachers and Students: Co-created With Teachers. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2024, Sciendo, vol. 26 no. s1, pp. 93-106. https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2024-0012
Read the entire AI Guide for Teachers here.
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