Role prompting: Assigning AI a pedagogical persona
Reading time: approx. 7 min
What you will learn
In this lesson, you will explore role prompting, a technique where you assign the AI model a specific character or identity to adopt. By getting AI to act as, for example, a historian, a biologist, a high school student, or a specific fictional character, you can generate responses that are more relevant, nuanced, and tailored to what you are looking for.
The basics
Role prompting is about instructing AI to "take on a certain role". When AI has been assigned a role, it tailors its responses to be consistent with the assigned role's knowledge, tone, and behavior. You can, for example, ask AI to act as:
- A specific professional role: "Act as a climate researcher..."
- A pedagogical role: "You are a Swedish teacher for grade 5..."
- A fictional character: "You are Pippi Longstocking and should explain..."
- A specific age group: "Answer as a 10-year-old with a great interest in space..."
- A specific style: "Answer in a humorous tone..."
Defining a role perspective for the AI model gives it a "blueprint" for the tone, style, and focused expertise you want, which improves the quality and relevance of responses.
Practical examples
Example 1: Social studies - Perspective exercise with role-play
Students should understand different actors' perspectives on a societal issue.
Prompt (Role prompt):
You should act as an environmental activist in a discussion about wind power.
Base your answers on this role's likely opinions and interests. Use arguments that this person would use, but avoid extreme or offensive positions.
Answer in Swedish and maintain a respectful, factual tone even when arguing for your position.
Student task: Students "interview" different AI roles to gather perspectives, which they then should analyze and compare in their own reflection.
Example 2: Creative writing - Create a story with AI as character
You want AI to help students develop a story by acting as one of the characters.
Prompt (Role prompt):
You are an old, wise owl who lives deep in the enchanted forest. You have seen most things and always answer with short, cryptic advice and a touch of mystery. A young adventurer has now come to you to ask about the way to The Glittering Spring.
Me: "Excuse me, wise owl. Can you tell me how I find The Glittering Spring?"
Benefits: AI responds in character, which makes the interaction more engaging and stimulates students' creativity and empathy.
Implementation in the classroom
Role-play exercises: Let students interact with AI as a specific historical person, a figure from a novel, or a professional to practice interview techniques, understand different perspectives, or delve deeper into a subject.
Differentiated instruction: Ask AI to explain a complex concept as an "expert for grade 3" or a "university lecturer", to adapt the explanation to different student groups' levels.
Debate and argumentation: Let AI adopt a controversial role in a discussion and ask students to argue against its positions.
Next steps
Role prompting gives AI a personality. In the next lesson, we will learn how you can give AI specific background information that is relevant to the current task, which further fine-tunes its responses.