From AI Answers to Student Judgement: Using an AI Tutor to Scaffold Ethical Inquiry in MYP Individuals & Societies
This will be a presentation discussing one of my Toddle AI Tutors that won in the Toddle AI Tutor Awards 2026.
This presentation explores the design and classroom use of Ethical Explorers, an AI tutor created to scaffold ethical inquiry within a Grade 6 IB MYP Individuals & Societies unit on historical controversy. The tutor enables Middle School students to interact with representations of John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche, question their ideas, and apply utilitarianism, Kantian deontology and moral relativism to dilemmas before transferring these conceptual lenses to the more demanding task of judging controversial historical figures.
I built the tutor to address a common challenge in inquiry-based learning: helping students access complex abstract concepts without simplifying them to the point that the intellectual challenge disappears, while giving every learner opportunities for questioning, feedback and dialogue.
My workshop will examine the design choices behind effective AI tutors, including purposeful constraints, role design, scaffolding, questioning and alignment with learning objectives; consider the tutor’s impact on conceptual understanding, critical thinking, perspective-taking, justification of opinions and learner agency; and connect these outcomes to MYP assessment criteria and ATL skills.
Participants will leave with practical principles and a replicable process for designing their own curriculum-aligned AI tutors that support student thinking rather than replacing it.
Facilitated By
Oscar Scafidi
MYP Individuals & Societies Teacher, ICS Addis Ababa
Originally from the UK and Italy, he is a professional travel writer, international school educator, endurance athlete and Guinness World Record holder. He has twenty years of international teaching experience and a strong academic background, including experience with International Baccalaureate curriculum and examination design. He has lived, worked and travelled across forty countries in Africa, with significant periods based in Sudan, Angola, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tunisia and Ethiopia.
His main focus in recent years has been AI integration in the classroom. His department recently ran a pilot project at ICS Middle School, developing and delivering an AI usage curriculum for all Middle School staff and students. As part of this work, he received a Toddle AI Tutor Award, including an Editor’s Pick, and will be delivering an online workshop on AI in education.
He is also the author of the Bradt Travel Guides to Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia. His writing focuses on lesser-visited destinations, particularly conflict and post-conflict zones. He also runs the Africa-focused YouTube channel Scafidi Travels.
In 2016, he and his friend Alfy Weston completed the first ever source-to-sea navigation of Angola’s River Kwanza, covering over 1,300km in 33 days by collapsible kayak. The expedition, undertaken in support of The HALO Trust, is now recognised as a Guinness World Record. In 2022, he and Ben Ziehm Stephen completed the first ever source-to-sea navigation of Madagascar’s longest river, the Mangoky, covering 750km over 28 days. A book and documentary about the expedition were released in 2025.
When not writing, teaching or kayaking, he is an avid Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) practitioner and ultra-distance runner, having completed ultramarathons in locations ranging from Tunisia’s Sahara Desert to the volcanic mountains of Bali, Indonesia.
