Visits by British Boarding Schools

What do students actually need when artificial intelligence is quietly taking over more and more of what humans used to do? The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is asking exactly that question – and, refreshingly, doing something about it. On 26 February, teachers from IB schools around the world gathered online for a webinar titled "Safeguarding Critical Thinking in the Age of AI", part of the IBO's IB Exchange Community Events series.

The message was clear: knowledge alone is no longer enough. What schools must protect and build is judgment, values, and the ability to place information in a wider context. Critical thinking, the session argued, is not a given – it is a skill, and one with two failure modes. Too little of it produces credulous students who believe everything they read. Too much tips into cynicism and blanket distrust. The goal is a healthy middle ground: alert, but open.

Among the digital tools discussed, Kialo Edu stood out. The tool supports structured debate and makes student thinking visible: arguments have to be formed, backed up, and weighed against each other. That, the session made clear, is precisely what AI cannot do for you – and precisely what schools should be demanding their students do for themselves.

Teachers from IB schools across the globe shared what is working in practice. One contribution in particular stayed with us: a teacher who walks into class and openly shows students how she or he used AI when planning the lesson – and where they chose not to, and why. In education circles, this is called "modelling". Sounds simple –turns out, it’s also one of the most effective things a teacher can do right now – helping students understand not just how to use AI, but when to put it down and think for themselves.

More than one hundred families joined our webinar "Future Skills & Self-Determination" yesterday evening to explore what young people need to meet the professional challenges ahead.

Our guests Ragnhild Struss (founder, Struss & Claussen Career Consultancy) and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (Chair of Strategy and Organisation, TU Munich) spent 75 minutes approaching the same conclusion from two different angles.

The central question: if knowledge is accessible everywhere, what still matters?

Prof. Dr. Welpe spoke of "tacit knowledge" – everything that cannot be found in books: life experience, networks across disciplines, the capacity for judgment. This is precisely what AI models lack as training data, and it will therefore grow in importance. In future, skills will matter more than credentials, she argued: "You can lead a good life without a degree. But without skills, you will struggle."

Her advice: choose universities that actively foster social interaction. She counts among these the Anglo-Saxon institutions such as Cambridge with its colleges and MIT with over 550 student clubs, but also WHU, CODE Berlin, ETH and TUM closer to home.

Ragnhild Struss identified three core skills: self-efficacy, communication and critical thinking. Can you explain what drives you? How you have dealt with setbacks? These are the questions that will count in future job interviews.

Her line that stayed with the audience: "Everyone already has innate abilities that can be developed." The task is to recognise them and then discover "where can I best contribute my potential?"

Both speakers see AI literacy as indispensable. The US is already ahead, treating tool competency as a given, while Germany is still debating Copilot licences. Ragnhild Struss pointed to the "seniority gap" dilemma: if entry-level jobs disappear, how will young people build the necessary experience? Companies must take greater responsibility for passing on experience ("embodied cognition").

Both speakers agreed: the path leads from the inside out. Not everyone needs to go to Cambridge at 17. Those who know themselves and build self-efficacy can do so anywhere. That takes the pressure off.

A warning also emerged: an MIT study shows that after just three months of AI use, cognitive ability measurably declines. For Prof. Welpe, this is more serious than social media.

Our warmest thanks to Ragnhild Struss and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe for this rich and thought-provoking evening.

The webinar recording is available here.