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Grace Pai Use Case

Faculty & Institution

  • Faculty: Grace Pai
  • Institution: Queens College, City University of New York
  • EPP area / program: Elementary and early childhood mathematics methods

Course Information

  • Course title: EECE 350: Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary School
  • Student population: Undergraduate candidates seeking New York state dual certification in early childhood education and childhood education
  • Course duration: Spring 2026
  • Implementation timing: One week during April-May 2026

AI Integration Overview

  • Use case title: Using AI to Enhance Math Teaching for Multilingual Learners
  • AI role: Interactive activity generator, student-work analysis support, and feedback comparison tool
  • AI tools used: Colleague AI; design notes also mention ChatGPT and Gemini for prompt refinement
  • Purpose: Give preservice teachers practice teaching mathematics to multilingual learners and evaluating AI’s affordances and limitations for analyzing student thinking and generating feedback.

Activity / Task Description

Students completed an asynchronous online interactive activity after reading Roberts et al.’s “Three ways to enhance tasks for multilingual learners.” They worked through three elementary mathematics discussion scenarios involving ELL students. A second part asked them to analyze an ELL student’s mathematical thinking and provide feedback first without AI and then with Colleague AI. Students compared their own output with AI output and reflected on the affordances and limitations of AI.

Do / Do-Not Guidance

  • Documented do’s: Get a Colleague AI teacher account; try generating an interactive activity; iteratively edit and refine the interactive through prompts.
  • Documented do-nots: Do not feel overwhelmed by all Colleague AI functions; the documented rationale is that the platform became manageable once the interactive generator was tried.

Evidence & Reflections

Pai added an AI-specific TPACK learning outcome and framed AI use around questions such as what the AI is doing, whether it can be trusted mathematically and pedagogically, how it should be adapted, and whether it supports student thinking. The design explicitly respected candidates’ autonomy in deciding whether to use AI in their own future practice.

Materials Reviewed

  • 1. Pai – Use Case.docx
  • 2. Pai – EECE 350 Syllabus.pdf
  • 3. Pai – AmplifyGAIN Design Notes.docx
  • 4. Pai – Deliverables.docx
  • GP WORKSHEET.docx

Library Tags

  • EPP area: Elementary mathematics methods; multilingual learners
  • AI integration type: Interactive scenario, feedback comparison, student-thinking analysis
  • Student population: Undergraduate preservice elementary and early childhood candidates
  • Implementation scale: One-week asynchronous activity
  • Materials available: Use case, syllabus, design notes, worksheet, deliverable form