Exploring teachers’ instrumental orchestration and roles in high school mathematics classes using AI-based digital tools

The integration of AI-based digital tools into classroom instruction is transforming the nature of instructional practices required of teachers in mathematics classrooms.This study aimed to analyze the types of instrumental orchestration and teacher roles observed in high school mathematics classes utilizing AI-based digital tools.Six lessons taught by an experienced high school mathematics teacher with extensive experience using AI-based digital tools were observed, and data from lesson recordings, teacher tablet screen captures, and post-lesson interviews were analyzed using directed content analysis.The findings revealed four existing orchestration types-technicalsupport, explain-the-screen, guide-and-explain, and spot-and-show-alongside three newly emerging types arising from the distinctive characteristics of AI-based tools: dashboard-monitoring, AI-correcting, and AI-mediating.In addition, the teacher's roles varied across orchestration types and included pedagogical roles, AI-technological roles, content-related roles, ethical roles, and the role of knowledge transmitter.Notably, content-related and ethical roles were particularly prominent when the teacher intervened in AI-generated feedback.By empirically illustrating how teacher orchestration is reconfigured in AI-based instructional environments, this study extends the theoretical framework of instrumental orchestration to AI-supported digital learning contexts and provides implications for understanding and supporting mathematics teachers' roles and professional development in the age of AI.