What happened when students used artificial intelligence in yoga teacher training

I worked for several years as an English professor at a small college where I also led Yoga Teacher Training (YTT). Exposing minds to two of my favorite subjects in the world was an amazing experience. I was even looking forward to grading the homework, especially for the YTT.

The majority of grades at YTT are based on student teaching practice. But being a believer in writing as reflection, I also asked students to provide personal answers to questions including, “Tell me about your reactions to today’s practice,” and “What Sanskrit word would you like to remember from reading and why?”

Often times, the responses they shared were amazingly insightful, relatable, and impressive. Then ChatGPT launched in 2022. Suddenly some of their responses no Very insightful, relatable, or impressive.

Every time a Student UTT I gave a personal answer that I suspected was coming from the AI, but was denied. “Surely I must be wrong,” I thought. Since there is no foolproof AI detector, I told myself that my gut reaction to seemingly robotic writing was not evidence.

However, when a student who had previously written in lowercase letters and sentence fragments suddenly switched to a reversal that was grammatically perfect, or when someone discussed poses we had not done together in class, or a student pointed out a Sanskrit term that had not been covered in the reading, my doubts increased.

Admittedly, part of me felt insulted by yoga, and on my own behalf. Didn’t we discuss? levelOr “no stealing” during class? Haven’t we revised the curriculum policy that states that AI is prohibited when it comes to personal reflections, because, well, subjective?

It was easy for me to understand students’ desire to use AI in the English classes I taught. Many signed up because it was a basic requirement. But no one king To take YTT. They were there, most likely, because they wanted to become yoga teachers or learn more about the subject.

So I would take a few deep breaths, and as I exhaled my exasperation, I would remind myself that this was not about me or even about yoga. Students may have taken the easy route because they were struggling with feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, weakness, or having problems with time management, which I’m no stranger to.

I realized that my concern ran deeper than whether or not students were using AI. Really, I wondered if the students who relied on AI didn’t miss the YTT point, which wasn’t just a diploma. The goal was to be ready to guide someone into trying yoga, which they would eventually need to trust themselves for. Was the use of AI a sign of their unpreparedness? Or did I not help them prepare?

Again, YTT students did not participate in the writing course either.

I needed to find a way to move forward, which meant it was time to deal with my nervous system’s desire to escape rather than have face-to-face conversations that no part of me wanted to have. I don’t even like to tell my dogs “no,” so I was definitely not comfortable playing AI police.

YTT’s AI policy was to ask students to redo assignments while avoiding making accusations. I would tell them, “This is not what I’m looking for.” Then I tried to be more of a permission giver than a punisher. “I want to know what you think. You haven’t been graded on grammar, so I’d prefer you give your honest personal feedback even if it’s hastily written and incomplete.”

Most of the time, I was the one sweating during these conversations, not the students. They usually take me on request to return. Sometimes they would thank me for the second chance and say they had a lot going on when they handed in their last assignments. Often times, their next assignments were much better, which was a relief. I found that over time, they began to share ideas and teaching sequences in a way that seemed more authentic to them.

And if sharing authentically is a valuable skill for yoga teachers (and humans) to have, then so is the ability to start the conversations you have with them about using their authentic voices… and move on from those conversations. Having an attitude of constant doubt towards students was frustrating and not very yogic. I realized that if I was going to continue to enjoy teaching, I had to find a way to gain confidence in my students, even if they were still working on their sense of confidence.

If they keep teaching, they will eventually learn it they They are the ones standing in front of the class – no one else. they They are the ones who will have to answer to their students with nothing Artificial intelligence assistance. To do this, they will have to trust themselves.