Curiosity! Each Child's Superpower!

Each Child’s Real AI Superpowers are Curiosity, Discernment, and a call to Co-Create 

As teachers, our goal is to move learners from merely "knowing" to "doing" and "evaluating." Encourage them to use AI to build knowledge, not as a shortcut for thinking. Let's empower the next generation to be curious, discerning, critically conscious, and creative, the essential human anchors for a democratic, equitable, and just future.

The International Day of Education 2026 theme is “The power of youth in co-creating education.” This theme is not just about updating textbooks; it’s an urgent call to action. In a world saturated with AI-generated content, from plausible text to invented facts, the most vital skills are no longer about knowing the answers, but about knowing how to question, evaluate, and create. Therefore: Curiosity! Each child's superpower!

We must anchor our youth in four essential human qualities that transform them from passive consumers of information into active agents of change and co-creators of their own future.

1. Curiosity: The Engine of Lifelong Learning

Curiosity is the initial spark that makes a learner proactive, not reactive. It is the intrinsic motivation that drives them to ask "why" and "how," which primes their brain to retain information more effectively.

Curiosity is the initial spark that makes a learner proactive rather than reactive.

• Active Seeking: Instead of waiting for answers, curious learners ask "why" and "how," which primes the brain to retain information more effectively—even unrelated details.

• Intrinsic Motivation: It shifts the focus from extrinsic rewards (like grades) to the pleasure of discovery, making learning feel like a "reward" similar to a physical treat.

• Ownership: Curiosity drives learners to pursue their own interests, turning a standard curriculum into a personalised journey.

In the age of AI, build children's trust in their own abilities before they resort to using AI.

Implement the "Human Sprint Alone" Rule (Focus: Curiosity & Creativity) as a non-negotiable rule at the start of any creative, research, or problem-solving task where learners work on their own or with other learners to physically or digitally document their initial thoughts and ideas,  the human-only process and the "Grunt Work"  before touching an AI tool or app.

They must not be afraid to ask questions! To think! To explore! Be curious!

In the age of AI, curiosity shifts its focus:

• From: Waiting for an answer.

To: Using AI as a collaborative thinking partner to pursue personalised interests and direct inquiry-based learning. The desire to ask becomes more valuable than the instant answer itself

2. Discernment: Navigating Information and the Pause That Protects Truth

In an era of radical technological transformation, discernment allows learners to evaluate the quality and purpose of what they are being taught.

• Critical Evaluation: Learners with discernment don't just accept facts; they judge evidence, calculate likelihoods, and make informed decisions about the "truth" presented to them.

• Bias Awareness: It involves identifying whose voices are missing from a text and recognizing the underlying power dynamics or causal links in a problem.

• Independent Integration: Discernment enables learners to connect different ideas strategically, a core component of higher-order thinking (DOK 3).

In the age of AI, the learners need to be discerning as AI systems can produce confident-sounding answers that are factually incorrect or ethically flawed ("hallucinations"). Discernment is the essential filter.

In the age of AI, discernment means:

• Critical Evaluation: Not just accepting facts, but judging evidence, calculating likelihoods, and asking the question beneath the question: “Does this actually make sense? Is this ethical?”

• Fact-Checking Habits: Fostering a healthy skepticism, training learners to verify AI outputs against diverse, credible, non-AI sources, and avoiding the trap of "cognitive offloading" (outsourcing their critical thinking to a machine).

3. Critical Consciousness: Seeing and Judging Injustice, and Unmasking Algorithmic Bias

In an era of radical technological transformation, Critical consciousness (conscientização) is the bridge from understanding a problem to taking action to fix it. It is rooted in Paulo Freire's critical literacy and pedagogy, the ability to "read the word and the world" to interrogate power dynamics. Critical consciousness is where the learners need to be able to read written text critically in physical documents and all digital formats. Read not just with meaning, but with discernment and curiosity,

• Interrogating the Status Quo: Learners use this to disrupt "common" ways of thinking and analyse inequalities related to race, class, gender, beliefs, traditions  and stereotypes.

• Self-Efficacy: It provides a sense of "political efficacy", the belief that you and your community have the capacity to resist oppression and effect change.

• Democratic Participation: By seeing themselves as "full human beings with rights and needs," learners become active participants in curricular reforms and social justice.

In the age of AI, critical consciousness requires:

• Identifying Hidden Assumptions: Analysing whose interests an AI serves and whose voices are missing from its training data. For instance, testing an AI image generator for bias when asking it to create images of a "leader" or "doctor."

• Agency Over Algorithms: Understanding that AI reflects the biases of its training data and can perpetuate systemic inequalities. Critically conscious youth can hold developers accountable and ensure technology supports equity, not undermines it.

Being a responsible digital and AI user through the lens of Critical Consciousness means moving beyond technical proficiency to embrace ethical agency. It involves recognising that digital tools and AI are not neutral mirrors of reality, but are shaped by the biases, data from all different sources, and power dynamics and intentions of creators.

In the age of AI,  critical consciousness and AI, to the International Day of Education theme of :

• The Visionary Choice

  • "Unmasking the Machine: Using Critical Consciousness to Co-Create Ethical AI"

  • Why it works: This highlights the learner's active role in "unmasking" bias and positions them as a "co-creator" of the technology itself.

• The Action-Oriented Choice

  • "From Algorithmic Awareness to Agency: Youth as Digital Change Agents"

  • Why it works: It emphasizes the bridge from "reading the word" (understanding the code/data) to "reading the world" (taking action for social justice).

• The Academic Choice

  • "The Pedagogy of the Digital: Interrogating Power in the Age of AI"

  • Why it works: This directly honours the roots of Paulo Freire’s work while placing it in the modern context of "radical technological transformation".

• The Empowering Choice

  • "Beyond the Algorithm: Empowering the Human Anchor in a Digital World"

  • Why it works: It reinforces the idea that the learner is a "full human being" whose discernment and curiosity are the ultimate safeguards against biased automation.

In the age of AI, aligning with the values of the International Day of Education 2026, responsible digital and AI user practices:

• Intentional Agency over Automation

  • The Power of the Pause: Before accepting an AI-generated answer or sharing digital content, the user exercises discernment to check for factual accuracy and hidden biases.

  • Resisting "Cognitive Offloading": A responsible user uses AI as a "thinking partner" to spark curiosity and creativity, rather than as a replacement for the hard work of critical thinking.

• Unmasking Algorithmic Bias

  • Interrogating Training Data: Understanding that if an AI is trained on a world with systemic inequalities, it will produce biased results.

  • Testing for Representation: Actively questioning why an AI might represent a "doctor" or "leader" as a specific race or gender, and demanding more inclusive data.

• Digital Citizenship and Social Justice

  • Safeguarding Rights: Using digital platforms to amplify the voices of the marginalized and protect the right to education in crisis-affected contexts.

  • Democratic Participation: Seeing oneself as a "full human being" who has the right to influence how technology is integrated into schools and society.

  • Accountability: Holding developers and institutions accountable for creating technology that supports equity and human dignity rather than undermining it.

• Co-Creating a Just Future

  • Designing for Good: Using creativity and technical skills to build digital tools that solve community problems, such as climate change or inequality.

  • Peer Support: Leading grassroots initiatives to teach others how to navigate the digital world with the same critical lens.

4. Creativity: Designing the Future

In an era of radical technological transformation, Creativity is the tool youth use to "co-create the education they want" and solve complex, real-world problems.

• Innovative Problem-Solving: Creative learners think "outside the box," generating a variety of original ideas to tackle challenges like climate change or poverty.

• Expressive Agency: It allows learners to communicate their insights to an audience using new technologies and diverse forms of expression.

• Resilience: In crisis-affected contexts, creativity helps youth develop unique coping strategies and initiatives to safeguard the right to education for their peers.

AI excels at pattern recognition and imitation. It can generate "artificial creativity." But it cannot replicate the human capacity for strategic empathy, moral judgment, or genuine "pedagogy of wonder."

In the age of AI, creativity is the human advantage because it:

• Envisions New Worlds: Allows learners to move beyond patterns and use AI as a springboard for novel solutions, asking, “What if we did it better?”

• Focuses Human Energy: The most successful outcomes occur when AI handles the grunt work (simple tasks), freeing up human energy for higher-level design, innovation, and moral judgment required for real-world problem-solving (like climate change or poverty).

In the age of AI, Strategic thinking is more critical than ever before because while AI can automate the "what," it cannot authentically determine the "why" or the "so what". In the context of the International Day of Education 2026, strategic thinking allows youth to move from being users of technology to co-creators of the systems that define their future.

Strategic thinking functions as a human advantage alongside AI.

In the age of AI, Strategic thinking determines the "Logic of Solution". AI can generate thousands of ideas, but strategic thinking provides the rationale for which idea actually solves the root cause of a problem.

• Justification: A strategic thinker explains why a specific AI-assisted plan is the most effective choice among alternatives.

• Moral Judgment: AI lacks a moral compass; humans must use strategic thinking to ensure that "intended outcomes" do not inadvertently cause harm to marginalized communities.

In the age of AI, Strategic thinking moves beyond pattern recognition. AI operates by recognising patterns from the past. Strategic thinking allows humans to envision new worlds that do not yet exist.

• The "Springboard" Effect: Instead of letting AI provide the final answer, strategic thinkers use AI as a "springboard" for novel solutions that address unique, real-world challenges like climate change.

• Innovating the Future: This aligns with the "technological revolution" mentioned by UNESCO, which calls for rethinking the very purpose of learning.

In the age of AI, Strategic thinking anticipates complexity and bias. AI often reflects the "hidden assumptions" and systemic inequalities of its training data. Strategic thinking is the tool used to deconstruct these complexities.

• Algorithmic Accountability: Strategic thinkers analyze whose interests an AI serves and identify whose voices are missing from the data.

• Predicting Outcomes: Humans use strategic thinking to map out "unexpected outcomes," such as how a new digital tool might impact social transformation or inequality.

In the age of AI, Strategic thinking focuses "Human Energy". By using AI to handle the "grunt work" or simple tasks, humans can reallocate their energy toward the "higher-level design" and "strategic empathy" required for social justice.

Efficiency for Agency: Strategic thinking allows learners to spend less time on rote memorisation and more time on "grassroots initiatives" that safeguard rights in crisis-affected contexts.

5. Consciously Planning Ahead with Others

Strategic thinking is the bridge that allows youth to act as agents of change. It shows:

• Accountability: It allows learners to hold systems accountable by measuring efforts and policy-making against stated commitments.

• Innovation: It frees human energy for "higher-level design" and "moral judgment," allowing learners to use AI or digital tools as a springboard for novel, real-world solutions.

• Sustainability: By understanding cause and effect, learners create solutions that are durable and contribute to long-term "sustainable development".

In the framework of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, Strategic Thinking (DOK 3) moves beyond simple application to focus on reasoning, planning, and evidence. This level of thinking is essential for learners to become "co-creators" of education, as it requires them to justify their choices and understand the logic behind complex systems.

Strategic thinking requires the learner to go beyond "what" is happening to explain the logic of a solution.

• Justification: The learner must provide a rationale for why a specific strategy is the most effective choice among several alternatives.

• Complexity: It involves breaking down a problem to see how its parts interact, ensuring the solution addresses the root cause rather than just the symptoms.

At this level, knowledge is used as a tool for design and coordination.

• Planning and Development: Learners use their knowledge to create a multi-step plan or a model, such as a community garden or a new school policy.

• Evidence-Based Decisions: Solutions are not reached by trial and error; they are developed by synthesizing information from various sources to form a cohesive strategy.

Strategic planning focuses on the relationships between actions and their consequences.

• Interrogating Dynamics: Learners analyze power dynamics or environmental factors to see how one change impacts the rest of the system.

• Logical Connection: It requires explaining the "why" behind a result—linking a specific cause (like algorithmic bias) to its effect (inequitable representation).

Strategic planning involves anticipating the future and preparing for its complexities.

• Intended Outcomes: These are the goals aligned with the learner's "aspirations and ambitions," such as achieving inclusive and equitable education.

• Unexpected Outcomes: Critical consciousness allows learners to foresee potential risks, such as how a technological revolution might induce radical, unplanned transformations in teaching and learning.

• Risk Assessment: Learners evaluate the impact of their choices, considering both the benefits and the potential negative side effects on the community.

Co-creating: Creating with others, changing learning

Learners co-creating education lies in shifting them from passive beneficiaries to active agents of change who have a direct say in their future. By being meaningfully engaged in the co-creation process, the educational system transforms to meet their real-world ambitions and the demands of a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Alignment with Aspirations and Ambitions

• Relevance: Co-creation ensures that what is being taught meets the actual aspirations and ambitions of youth, who constitute more than half the global population.

• Purpose: It allows for a fundamental rethinking of the purpose and modalities of teaching, especially during the current technological revolution.

Empowerment and Agency

• Accountability: By participating in decision-making, youth can hold countries accountable for their commitments to education made at international summits.

• Self-Efficacy: When learners see their voices represented in global consultations and decision-making bodies, it reinforces their role as leaders and changemakers.

• Informed Decisions: Grassroots initiatives led by youth provide vital, first-hand data that helps international organizations take more informed and practical decisions.

Social Transformation and Justice

• Peace and Inclusion: Meaningful engagement aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, helping to build peaceful, just, and inclusive societies.

• Safeguarding Rights: Youth-led initiatives are often the most instrumental in safeguarding the right to education in crisis-affected contexts and for the most marginalized groups.

Democratic Participation

• Permanent Seats at the Table: Co-creation has led to historic milestones, such as youth securing a permanent seat in the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee alongside global leaders.

• Strategic Dialogue: It allows youth to contribute directly to strategic dialogues through tangible outputs like the Youth Declaration on Transforming Education.

In the age of AI, the impact of co-creating with both humans and AI is a shift from automation to augmentation, where technology handles the scale and speed while humans provide the direction, ethics, and "pedagogy of wonder".  Lucy Gill-Simmen (2025), explains that the "pedagogy of wonder" is when the learners’ curiosity about the possibilities of artificial intelligence inspire them to use the technology to its fullest potential.

Amplified Social Transformation

Co-creating allows youth to use AI as a tool to address global challenges more effectively than either could alone.

• Problem Solving at Scale: While humans identify real-world problems like climate change or poverty, AI acts as a "springboard" for novel solutions by processing vast amounts of data.

• Grassroots Innovation: Youth-led initiatives in crisis-affected contexts can use digital tools to safeguard the right to education for marginalized peers.

• Democratic Reach: Digital platforms allow youth voices to be amplified through UNESCO networks (like ASPnet and the Global Youth Community), ensuring they reach global decision-making bodies.

Higher-Order Cognitive Focus

When AI handles "grunt work" or simple tasks, human energy is reallocated to more complex forms of thinking.

• Focusing Human Energy: By letting AI manage pattern recognition, humans can focus on "higher-level design" and moral judgment.

• Strategic Thinking: Co-creation requires humans to explain the "why" and "how" behind solutions (DOK 3), ensuring that technological outputs align with actual human ambitions.

• Intentional Agency: Responsible users exercise "the power of the pause," using discernment to check AI outputs for factual accuracy and bias.

Ethical and Inclusive Development

Co-creating with a critical lens ensures that the "technological revolution" does not leave people behind.

• Unmasking Bias: Through critical consciousness, humans interrogate the training data of AI to identify whose voices are missing and ensure technology supports equity.

• Co-Creating the Future: Meaningfully engaging youth in co-creating education ensures that the modalities of teaching and learning reflect diverse traditions and beliefs rather than just algorithmic averages.

Co-Creation Element	Human Contribution	AI Contribution	Resulting Impact
Problem Solving	Strategic Empathy & Moral Judgment	Pattern Recognition & Imitation	Solutions that are both innovative and ethically sound.
Education Reform	Setting Aspirations & Ambitions	Automating Routine Tasks	A purpose-driven curriculum that evolves with technology.
Policy Making	Advocating for Rights & Justice	Data Synthesis & Measurement	Accountable systems that recognise youth as agents of change.

The shift from passive consumption to active co-creation, powered by the anchors of Curiosity, Discernment, Creativity, and Critical Consciousness, is the true educational imperative for the age of AI. The call to action is not merely to update the curriculum, but to embrace a pedagogy of augmentation where technology handles the rote, freeing up human energy for strategic empathy and moral judgment. By cultivating these essential 'superpowers,' we empower the next generation to move beyond mere pattern recognition, ensuring they are not just users of technology, but ethical architects of a democratic, equitable, and just future they are actively prepared to co-create and own.

How Teachers Can Adapt Their Practice

To align with the vision of youth as co-creators, teachers must transition from being "directors of knowledge" to "facilitators of learning."

Shift in Practice	Old Paradigm (Director of Knowledge)	New Paradigm (Facilitator of Learning)
Classroom Norms	Imposing top-down rules.	Co-Creating shared guidelines and culture with learners.
Curriculum Design	Dictating what is learned.	Offering Choice Boards and allowing learners to influence what and how they learn (e.g., learner-led content).
Assessment Focus	Assessing final products (easily generated by AI).	Assessing the process of critical thinking, using alternative methods like Socratic debates or oral exams.
AI Mindset	Treating AI as a magic box of answers.	Modeling skepticism; being discerning - treating AI as a "co-pilot," critically verifying information, looking for inaccuracies, "hallucinates" or bias.

Encouraging learners to ask questions! To be discerning, skeptical, analytical! Question everything!

Be Curious!

Sources

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