Key points:
Prompt engineering–the ability to craft precise, thoughtful inputs for AI tools to produce effective outputs–is quickly becoming an essential skill in modern education. More than a technical trick, it’s a pedagogical shift. Research increasingly supports its value in enhancing instruction, reducing teacher workload, and preparing students for future-ready learning.
There are three key domains where educators can harness prompt engineering, supported by recent research and practical applications:
- Enhancing instruction and feedback
- Reducing teacher burden
- Teaching prompt engineering to students
It also explores how prompt engineering intersects with metacognition, computational thinking, AI literacy, and educational equity–making it not just a tool, but a framework for empowered learning.
1. Enhancing instruction and feedback
What it means: Prompt engineering allows teachers to generate standards-aligned, scaffolded, and differentiated content in seconds. The key is crafting the right query.
Implementation ideas
- Curriculum design: Instead of generic prompts like “create a lesson plan on photosynthesis,” a high-impact prompt would be: “Design a 40-minute 6th grade lesson plan on photosynthesis, including a hands-on activity, vocabulary support for ELL students, and one formative assessment question.”
- Feedback generation: AI can help draft detailed formative feedback aligned to rubrics. Example prompt: “Give constructive, strengths-based feedback on a 9th grade argumentative essay about climate change, using the NYS ELA rubric.”
- Differentiation: Customize outputs based on Lexile levels, language proficiency, or IEP modifications.
Why it matters: Prompt engineering enables adaptive, student-centered teaching at scale. According to the OECD’s 2023 report, teachers using AI strategically for instructional planning saved up to 30 percent of prep time–freeing them to invest in direct student support.
2. Reducing teacher burden
What it means: AI can take over repetitive or administrative tasks–such as drafting rubrics, generating assessments, and writing newsletters–giving teachers more capacity to lead instructionally.
Implementation ideas
- Rubric-aligned scoring: “Use this rubric to score a middle school social studies response. Highlight strengths and next steps in a warm, constructive tone.”
- Streamlining communication: “Draft a weekly parent newsletter for 7th grade science, summarizing lab activities on ecosystems, spotlighting a student’s success, and previewing next week’s project.”
- Generating student tasks: “Write three vocabulary-based bell ringers aligned to NYS Social Studies Framework for Grade 8, Unit 4.”
Why it matters: Increased workload is a key factor in teacher burnout. The Stanford Accelerator for Learning (2023) notes that AI can “lighten the administrative load” while enhancing feedback and instructional personalization. When teachers control how AI is used through skillful prompting, it becomes an ally–not a replacement.
3. Teaching prompt engineering to students
What it means: Students are already using AI–but often without guidance. Teaching them how to write effective prompts develops their metacognition, digital citizenship, and academic integrity.
Implementation ideas
- Model and scaffold prompt construction
- Tier 1: Use teacher-created prompts
- Tier 2: Revise prompts together
- Tier 3: Students generate prompts based on goals (e.g., “Help me outline a DBQ essay with four body paragraphs, each tied to a primary source.”)
- Writing and research support: Teach students to prompt AI to brainstorm ideas, suggest text structures, or refine sentence fluency–while learning to cite and fact-check output
- Digital literacy and ethics lessons: Discuss bias in AI, hallucinated facts, and privacy. Use real examples of flawed outputs to promote discernment.
Why it matters: Prompt engineering builds metacognitive awareness–a key predictor of academic success (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2023). It also aligns with computational thinking, reinforcing skills like abstraction and decomposition (Code.org, 2024). According to ISTE’s 2024 framework, AI literacy is now a pillar of digital citizenship.
Research crosswalk: Connecting prompt engineering to broader trends
| Research Area | Key Insight | Application in Prompt Engineering |
| Cognitive Science | Metacognitive prompting improves student outcomes | Students revise and improve their own prompts to deepen thinking |
| Equity & Access | UNESCO (2024): AI must be inclusive and multilingual | Prompt engineering allows teachers to differentiate by language level |
| Workload Reduction | OECD (2023): AI can reduce teacher planning time by 30 percent | Teachers use prompts to generate tasks, feedback, and communication |
| Computational Thinking | Prompting involves decomposition, abstraction, iteration | Integrate prompt engineering into CS, STEM, and project-based learning |
| AI Literacy & Ethics | Stanford (2023): AI must be taught with ethical guidelines | Include bias-checking and fact-verification in student prompts |
Prompting with purpose
Prompt engineering is not just about using AI–it’s about using it wisely, ethically, and creatively. For educators, it offers a way to differentiate instruction, streamline workflows, and stay focused on human connection. For students, it’s a gateway to inquiry, expression, and digital fluency.
By embedding this skill into our classrooms and professional practices, we ensure that both teaching and learning evolve with the times–while staying grounded in what matters most: empowering every learner.
Timothy Montalvo, Iona University
Timothy Montalvo is an educator passionate about leveraging technology to enhance student learning outcomes. With over a decade of experience in social studies education, he is dedicated to preparing students for active citizenship in the digital age. He currently serves as a Middle School Assistant Principal in Westchester, NY and an adjunct professor of education at Iona University in New York. He can be reached on Twitter/X @MrMontalvoEDU.
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