Invited Panel Discussion
Expertise in the Teaching of Writing Revisited
in the Age of AI
Chair: Amy B. M. Tsui
Panelists: Icy Lee, Paul Kei Matsuda, Amy B M Tsui (Chair)
The advent of AI has transformed the nature of classroom teaching and learning, and one of the important consequences is that it has upended what had been considered effective pedagogies. In the prominent work on expertise, Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) pointed out that when confronted with a novel situation, an expert who is highly skilled in his or her domain often becomes a novice once again as they learn and adapt to this unfamiliar situation (see also Berliner, 2004).
Given that the impact of AI on all aspects of humanity is not even fully understood, and its impact on education cannot be fathomed, a legitimate question to ask is this: since all teachers are learning to cope with AI in the classroom, how meaningful is it distinguish between expert and novice teachers in this era? In an equally prominent piece of work, Hatano and Ingaki (1986) coined the term “adaptive expertise” to characterize the ability of an expert to apply and adapt existing knowledge to solve problems arising from novel situation.
Since the situation is novel, experts must also go through a learning process just as novices do (see e.g., Wineburg, 1998) Then the legitimate question to ask how is the learning of an expert teacher qualitiatively different from that of a novice teacher? What is embodied in “adpative expertise” in teaching, and specifically in the teaching of writing?
In this panel discussion, three panelists will explore these questions from different perspectives.
Icy Lee will address these questions by examining areas in L2 writing teachers surpasses GenAI, for example, the development of a credible academic voice, hence underscoring the indispensable role of writing teacher expertise.
Paul Kei Matsuda will problematize the simplistic novice-expert binary and offers an alternative conception of expertise as the ongoing development of knowledge, skills and awareness in a specific context.
Amy B M Tsui will approach these questions from a conceptual perspective. She will also draw on her research on expert teachers to elucidate what the concepts proposed look like in the context of L2 classroom teaching.
About the Presenters
Amy Bik May Tsui is YuShan Fellow, Chair Professor of the English Department at National Taiwan Normal University, and Professor Emerita of The University of Hong Kong (HKU). She is also former Vice-President of HKU from 2007-2014 during which she led the historical undergraduate curriculum reform. She has published 12 authored/(co)-edited books and over 120 journal articles and book chapters in a range of areas, including teacher expertise, language policy and medium of instruction, classroom discourse and conversational analysis. She has presented close to 90 keynotes on these areas as well as university curriculum reform in 21 countries in Asia, Europe, UK, US and S. Africa. Her most recent book (2025, co-edited with Ernesto Macaro) Language Issues in English Medium Instruction Higher Education presents case studies of the implementation of EMI in disciplinary classrooms and their theoretical motivations.She obtained her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Birmingham in 1986, and was awarded Doctorate of Education (honoris causa) by the University of Edinburgh in 2015 for her outstanding contribution to higher education and research excellence. In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious YuShan Fellowship by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan.
Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and Director of Second Language Writing at Arizona State University. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in writing studies, applied linguistics, and second language writing in both U.S. and international contexts. His teaching focuses on supporting multilingual writers and preparing new instructors to teach writing in linguistically diverse classrooms. At ASU, he leads the professional preparation of graduate teaching assistants for multilingual sections of first-year college composition courses and designs curriculum that integrates rhetorical instruction with attention to language development. Matsuda is widely known for his work in second language writing and has contributed to the development of teacher education in this area through publications, conference workshops, and invited lectures. He is Founding Chair of the Symposium on Second Language Writing and former President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. He regularly offers professional development for writing teachers around the world. His pedagogical approach emphasizes genre awareness, rhetorical flexibility, and research-based instructional practices.