This article follows a session on ‘Using AI in the Classics Classroom’ delivered at the University of Cambridge Mentors’ Day for the Classics PGCE (Initial Teacher Education programme). The first half of the article provides a brief introduction to how generative AI operates and the impact AI has had on education in the UK. In addition, this section considers the advantages of AI for educators in supporting PGCE students and early career teachers, aiding with planning and resource creation as well as the advantages for pupils. It also sets out practical limitations such as AI hallucinations, biases, database limitations, data protection concerns, and the potential risks of pupils developing reliance on AI usage and how teachers can avoid this. The second half of this article provides guidance and examples of how teachers can use AI to support their workload outside of the classroom and for using AI with pupils in the classroom. This includes advice on how to improve AI prompts, example prompts, and prompt scaffolds, as well as recommendations of AI tools for teachers to use in the classroom.

Teaching ancient literature in translation is increasingly common across schools and universities; however, there has been limited discussion of pedagogical approaches towards, specifically, translated literature. I discuss the findings of a study conducted on first-year undergraduates at Oxford University, who analysed translations of the Iliad as part of a taught course. The publication of Wilson (2023) offers an opportunity to see how students respond to very recent translations. I explore the pitfalls students encounter when analysing poetry in translation and the ways educators, whether in high schools or universities, can help students negotiate these pitfalls and develop a more sophisticated understanding of literary translation. In particular, I discuss how a student’s level of familiarity with the Greek language affects the ways they analyse translations, and how educators can encourage students with little or no Greek to engage with translations successfully.

This article presents an adaptation of the recent e-portfolio learning strategy, named Χαρτοφυλάκιον in ancient Greek and Scrinium in Latin, which significantly enhances the learning and assessment of classical languages in a philosophical academic setting. Developed at the University of La Sabana, this approach synergises constructivist and experiential learning theories to actively involve students in their educational journey, encouraging deeper engagement with the acquisition of ancient Greek and Latin. The e-portfolio encompasses a comprehensive spectrum of student work, from translations and grammatical exercises to philosophical reflections and cultural analyses, all while integrating the creative element of ancient artistic inspiration. The assessment of this didactic strategy employs a custom e-rubric, designed to evaluate organisational skills, independent study, engagement with primary sources, artistic integration, and coherent philosophically reflective insights. Feedback garnered from an anonymous student survey indicates that the e-portfolio not only substantiates students’ intellectual growth but also significantly enriches the learning experience, as evidenced by increased student interest and critical inquiry. The results affirm the e-portfolio’s role in fostering a holistic and interactive learning environment that promotes the students’ autonomy and critical thinking. This research contributes to pedagogical discourse by providing a model for applying reflective, project-based learning frameworks to classical studies. This paper is a product of the project Proteus I: Development of Virtual Environments for Experiential Learning in the Humanities.

After beginning to teach a year 9 Latin class I noticed a distinct lack of engagement from the majority of the pupils. I decided to use four different adaptive teaching strategies to try to improve engagement from the class. After choosing the four strategies (grouping, questioning, input, and choice) I planned four consecutive lessons around the strategies and modern literature. The study showed that adaptive teaching strategies work best when teachers have good prior knowledge of individual pupils. Without this prior knowledge, I feel the two most successful strategies, grouping and input, would have been significantly less effective. The less effective of the four strategies, questioning and choice, could have been successful with more time and if they were used consistently throughout the teaching year. They both need time in order to develop the way in which they are used by teachers (specifically questioning) and by pupils (both choice and questioning), which is something I will be considering when starting my teaching career.

This article details how Plautus’ Casina has been used in a general education comparative gender history class over multiple semesters. Since Casina was based on an Athenian New Comedy play (The Lot-Castors by Diphilus), it incorporates elements of late fourth/early third century BCE Athenian ideas on gender, gender roles, and sexuality as well as Republican Roman views on these same areas from approximately a century later. For an introductory comparative gender history course which is designed for a wide time span, this play therefore offers the opportunity to look at two related cultures in just one work. The article highlights areas of the play emphasising those cultures’ ideals and values, and also deals with which areas students have most commented on and which ones are often ignored, in terms of characters, gender roles, and sexualities. The role and representation of slaves in those societies and within the play are also remarked upon.

This paper describes four methodological proposals for rescuing from oblivion and highlighting women writers in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. In workshops employing a variety of active methodologies, students become acquainted with Greek writers like Sappho, Diotima of Mantinea and Aspasia, and their Roman counterparts, including Sulpicia and Agrippina the Younger, while also becoming aware of the authorship of these women writers and their lack of visibility. The proposals take the shape of activities aimed at fostering a vocation for science among baccalaureate students in Spain but can also be easily adapted to secondary and even higher education in other educational contexts.

This article considers the publication in 1879 of the Moral Philosophy of Aristotle, a book aimed at Oxford University undergraduates studying for the Classics degree course known as Literae Humaniores. This book is of contemporary interest. It takes us to the heart of the question of whether the work of Aristotle is meant for everyone or just for a select few. In principle, whatever we have inherited from Antiquity (whether materially or intellectually) belongs to us all. Therefore, there is an educational requirement to make it accessible to everyone and this should apply to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. But Aristotle is famously obscure and so in practice the study of Aristotle is confined to a small elite. Hatch’s The Moral Philosophy of Aristotle tries to overcome the problem of Aristotle’s obscurity by paraphrasing the Nicomachean Ethics in a popularising fashion and in sharp contrast to the way Aristotle is usually presented. To bring out the distinctive qualities of the Hatch approach this article compares The Moral Philosophy of Aristotle with the translations published in the modern Clarendon Aristotle series, which are intended for a readership made up largely of professionals working in universities. The article contrasts Hatch’s goals of readability and dogmatic clarity with the insistence on semantic fidelity which is the hallmark of the Clarendon series. The article concludes that there is a greater risk of distorting Aristotle’s meaning on the Hatch approach, but that this is compensated for by its pedagogic merits, and suggests that ideally teachers will use both Hatch and Clarendon together.