Whether students using chatbots are learning anything or simply copying has dogged generative AI since it entered classrooms. Google's response is a coaching mode called Guided Learning, first offered in its Gemini app, that poses questions and breaks problems into steps instead of producing a finished answer. Google began rolling out the feature globally in Classroom for schools that had already enabled Gemini, the company said in a blog post; Search will follow for student accounts, starting with a pilot at some U.S. schools later in November. The company frames the approach as preserving "productive struggle," the point at which a student is challenged but not defeated.
The larger shift concerns who decides. Google is moving to a default in which Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search are all switched off for K-12 student accounts until an administrator turns them on. Google said it settled on the change after hearing from schools, teachers, researchers and policymakers. Its stated goal is letting school leaders use AI in classrooms however they choose.
The catch is Search. Because Google treats Search and AI as integrated, a district that keeps AI off also loses student Search, the AP reported, a bind for New York City and Los Angeles Unified, which have restricted student AI, Education Week reported. Reaction was sharp. Richard Blumenthal, who with Josh Hawley had pressed Google on why AI became the default on school devices, told Education Week in an email that the company was "once again prioritizing profits over people." Google has not said whether a non-AI search option will return.
Google is pairing the rollout with evidence. A randomized trial with University of Tokyo students found larger test-score gains for those given Guided Learning than for those using standard web tools, and a pilot in UK secondary schools run with the charity Ark prompted new teacher dashboards and tighter anchoring to uploaded curriculum, a companion Google post said. Those teacher controls are central to the Classroom version, where instructors assign the activity and monitor progress. The Tokyo gains came from a single half-day study session.