Practice without pressure: PLC research goes global
PLC’s classroom AI research was presented to girls’ school educators from around the world at the 2026 ICGS Global Forum on Girls’ Education in Canada.
In June, Art & Design teacher and Staff Development Digital Learning Coordinator Mrs Perri Winter travelled to Toronto to present at the ICGS Global Forum on Girls’ Education, the peak international gathering for girls’ schools. Her session, From Prompt to Prepared, co-presented with Jayne Schinckel of St Hilda’s (Queensland), shared original research conducted here at PLC with our own Year 12 students.
The presentation was the culmination of Mrs Winter’s two-year fellowship with the ICGS Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC), which selects a small international cohort of teacher-researchers to investigate the questions facing girls’ education. Her cohort’s focus: navigating the AI frontier in girls’ schools.
Her study, Practice Without Pressure, published this year in the ICGS international research library, asked the question: what happens when students prepare for exams with an AI tutor trained by their own teacher? Working with PLC’s ICT team, Mrs Winter designed and built Agent Art, a Socratic feedback agent trained on VCE Art Making and Exhibiting terminology and VCAA marking guides, deliberately designed never to hand over an answer. Ten Year 12 students used it across their exam preparation season, with every conversation reviewed by their teacher.
The findings resonated with educators around the world. Students engaged with the AI agent because they trusted the teacher who built it. It gave them a safe, low-stakes space for unlimited practice, while their teacher remained the judgement they valued most. Reading the conversation logs gave Mrs Winter a window into student thinking that is usually invisible in class. And where AI feedback was generic or wrong, students were explicitly taught to critique it.
The research is the latest chapter in PLC’s considered approach to artificial intelligence, which Mrs Winter has helped lead since 2023: the College’s AI Working Group, staff learning programs, the Technology and AI Integration for Student Learning guide, and a Years 7–9 generative AI introduction session and PLC’s work profiled in The Age Domain Independent Schools Guide in 2025.
Mrs Winter will address the AI in Education Conference in Geelong on 13 August, and be sure to keep an eye out in the IEU’s The Point for a feature article. A fitting summary of PLC’s approach: ‘Intelligence can be artificial. Wisdom cannot.’
Watch Mrs Winter and Jayne Schinckel's podcast conversation on using AI in Australian Education.
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