How to Build AI-Proof Reading Skills by Mastering Textbooks

According to Arai, the essential skill to master is the ability to thoroughly read and engage with school textbooks. She recounts a remarkable classroom experience in Fukushima and explains the importance of "reading skill tests" that even adults often fail. The article also covers an experiment she conducted using ChatGPT and how the NHK Red and White Song Festival revealed the current limits of AI.

"It's not enough to just go 'Oh, I see,'" Arai says. "That level of understanding can be easily replicated by ChatGPT." The real challenge is figuring out how to live alongside AI. She described an experiment she conducted around the end of September last year using ChatGPT, emphasizing the importance of students being able to say upon graduation, "I can read textbooks on my own now, so I'm ready."

She stresses that students who build this foundation will not fear reskilling or the idea of being replaced by technology. But how does one build such independent learning ability? Arai used to think it would be very difficult, but she witnessed a dramatic transformation at a small town elementary school that had test scores below the national average.

In that school, teachers and students began reading through each two-page spread of the textbook during every class. The result was remarkable improvement in comprehension. Arai explains what this kind of deep reading looks like: for example, when reading a sixth-grade social studies textbook about Gyoki and the construction of the Great Buddha, students don't just read the text—they examine illustrations, historical photos, and graphs showing the amount and type of metals used.

One key point that captivated the students was understanding why people of that time would admire Gyoki as a bodhisattva and willingly help build the Great Buddha, despite the hardship of the era. It was a time of heavy taxation and rampant disease. But Gyoki was part of the Toraijin, who possessed advanced engineering technologies. He built irrigation ponds and canals that enabled continuous rice cultivation—even during droughts—helping people avoid starvation. Children from the Aizu Misato area could relate, as they were familiar with agricultural water management. To them, Gyoki must have seemed like a wizard.

Through such reading, students began to connect history, technology, and religious influence on a deeper level. When told Gyoki later became a high-ranking priest, they responded, "Just like Tenmu!"—referring to a famous local historical figure. The sense of understanding and connection filled their reflection essays.

What surprised Arai most was that this level of insight didn't come from gifted or elite students attending cram schools, but from ordinary children in a rural area. "If they can do this, then Japan still has a future," she said. "This method should be spread to other schools."

Arai believes that textbooks are not written to be understood only by geniuses. Any student can learn to read deeply with the right guidance. However, a deeper structural issue lies in the way textbooks are approved and used. When Arai once proposed a simplified world history text to a publisher, the feedback from teachers was that it was too easy to understand—and thus unusable as a textbook. The reason: if students could understand it on their own, it would undermine the teacher’s role.

This, Arai argues, points to a mindset that needs to change. Today, with YouTube and countless online learning tools available, school should be a place that helps children become independent readers—not dependent on teachers or tutors. But when Arai administered her Reading Skill Test to students, results were shocking. One example question had a correct answer rate of only 55%, even though it was a two-choice question. Students would match keywords without grasping the sentence structure or power dynamics, such as who issued orders to whom.

This shows, Arai warns, that many children are being trained to identify keywords but not to truly understand what they read. This is a failure not of the students, but of an education system that values test scores and easy-to-measure outputs over deep comprehension. Even cram schools and regular schools alike have become fixated on test strategies, which leaves students unprepared to truly "graduate" with real reading ability.

Arai believes the true goal should be for students to say, "Thanks, teacher, but I can manage on my own now." A good teacher is one whose students no longer need them. Yet many teachers—and parents—are trapped in a system that resists this kind of independence.

When students who struggle with reading try to use ChatGPT, they tend to accept surface-level responses and fail to dig deeper. This, Arai says, is where the limits of both AI and current education systems become clear. She hopes more people will recognize that true literacy—and resilience in the age of AI—begins with mastering how to read a textbook.

Source: テレ東BIZ