The classroom still needs a beating heart, ETEducation
By Sanjay Fuloria, Ph D
In an age where artificial intelligence can draft essays, evaluate assignments, and tutor in multiple languages at once, it is tempting to ask whether the human teacher is still essential. Generative AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini have begun to assume many instructional tasks with astonishing precision. Yet, as classrooms integrate algorithms, the question grows urgent: can intelligence without empathy ever replace the teacher who listens, understands, and inspires?
Education as a relationship, not a transaction
Education, at its core, is not a transaction of information but a relationship. The psychology of learning reveals that the emotional, social, and moral dimensions of teaching, which shape character as much as intellect, remain uniquely human.The power of emotional intelligence in teaching
Psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer, later popularised by Daniel Goleman, introduced the concept of emotional intelligence — the ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions. This quality is fundamental to effective teaching. A sensitive teacher can recognise anxiety in a student’s hesitant tone, frustration in their silence, or pride in their tentative success. Such emotional attunement creates a safe space for exploration and failure alike. A machine, no matter how sophisticated, can only simulate empathy through patterned responses. It cannot genuinely feel or care.Studies from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence have shown that emotionally responsive classrooms lead to higher student engagement and achievement. The teacher’s glance of reassurance, the encouragement after a failed attempt, or the simple recognition of effort all affirm the learner’s worth. Generative AI may optimise answers, but it cannot provide that most fundamental form of motivation: the sense of being seen.
Learning through human example
Learning, as psychologist Albert Bandura demonstrated through Social Learning Theory, is deeply social. We learn not only from what teachers say but from how they behave. A teacher’s patience, curiosity, or ethical integrity becomes a living model for students to emulate. Classrooms are small theatres of moral life where respect, cooperation, and fairness are rehearsed daily.
Machines can process information, but they do not embody values. They can imitate politeness, but they cannot possess character. The quiet dignity with which a teacher admits uncertainty or the conviction with which they uphold fairness communicates lessons beyond any syllabus. These are moments of human modelling that form citizens, not just students.
The true meaning of personalisation
Individualisation, often cited as AI’s greatest advantage, has in truth always been the art of great teachers. Drawing on Jean Piaget’s constructivist ideas, educators have long understood that students build knowledge through active engagement, reflection, and dialogue. Teachers adjust their methods to suit a learner’s pace, personality, and prior understanding. They also sense when to challenge and when to console, balancing intellect with intuition.
AI can provide adaptive exercises and instant feedback, but it lacks the interpretive capacity to grasp why a learner struggles or how to reignite their confidence. A teacher’s awareness of emotion and context transforms instruction into mentorship, a nuance that no dataset, however vast, can teach a machine.
The neuroscience of connection
Neuroscience, too, affirms the necessity of human presence. Research on mirror neurons and the “social brain” shows that we learn through observing and empathising with others. Watching a teacher’s enthusiasm or listening to the cadence of their explanation activates neural circuits that support imitation and emotional connection. The sense of belonging and shared attention that occurs in a classroom is neurologically distinct from solitary interaction with a screen. Learning is literally wired for human company.
Teachers as moral anchors
Teachers serve as moral anchors in a time when values are easily fragmented. The psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg emphasised that moral development arises through dialogue and reasoning, while Carol Gilligan later stressed the ethics of care — moral understanding through empathy and relationship. Teachers, often unconsciously, embody both. Through fairness, patience, and compassion, they transmit the moral grammar of society. AI, by contrast, lacks agency and conscience; it can replicate moral language but not moral judgement.
AI as partner, not replacement
None of this is to deny AI’s potential as a partner. Technology can assist teachers by automating routine tasks and offering supplementary tutoring, freeing time for deeper human interaction. Cognitive scientists such as Edwin Hutchins have argued that learning is a distributed process, shared across people and tools. AI can extend the teacher’s reach but should never eclipse the teacher’s role. The balance lies in partnership, not substitution.
Only humans can inspire
Education has always been about more than learning facts. It is about forming minds capable of judgement, empathy, and imagination. Students may forget the content of a lesson, but they remember the teacher who believed in them, who noticed their effort, or challenged them to think differently. Generative AI can illuminate information, but only a teacher can illuminate the self.
The beating heart of the classroom
As the digital age accelerates, society must remember this: machines can instruct, but only humans can inspire. And in that enduring distinction lies the future of education itself.
The author is the Professor and Director, Center for Distance and Online Education, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Hyderabad.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETEDUCATION does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETEDUCATION will not be responsible for any damage caused to any person or organisation directly or indirectly.
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