‘PrincipalGPT’ creates a new AI blueprint for legal literacy in the classroom

Moving legal studies from the textbook to the digital arena, a new AI-based model for K-12 learning is taking shape at the University of Florida. In his graduate-level school law course, Chris Thomas, J.D., Ph.D., has found a way to deepen his students’ legal comprehension by replacing a short essay assignment with a dynamic, interactive role-playing exchange using ChatGPT. The new assignment, called PrincipalGPT, allows students to simulate real-world practice via legal conversations that mirror those taking place in schools across the country.

“The assignment has students take on the role of the school attorney while the custom GPT takes on the role of the school principal,” said Thomas, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy in the UF College of Education. “The scenario is that the principal is coming to the attorney for legal advice on how to handle an employment law issue, and the students have to work through that conversation in an ethical and legal way.”

In the early days of ChatGPT, the recommended approach was to assign the tool a role as part of a well-crafted prompt. As Thomas tinkered with prompt engineering, he noticed how other organizations were using sophisticated software to create role-play simulations. He realized he could use ChatGPT to create something similar for his students. 

Drawing on his background as a former high school teacher and then as an attorney who represented school districts, Thomas devised an activity that mirrored the everyday legal dilemmas school leaders face.

First, he assigned the model the role of a school principal and gave it a set of rules that made it behave like a seasoned school administrator. Some of the key rules he noted were: no bullet points, no more than 200 words per response, and, crucially, no legal advice from the chatbot itself. 

The bot was explicitly told, “You are not a legal expert. The user will provide the legal analysis.”

Thomas then fed his custom GPT a scenario based on a real-world case and had students engage in simulated conversations with the “principal” about the legal issues that arose. Afterward, students reflected on the experience through group debriefs.

While an essay assignment might have had students thinking in terms of facts and statutes through an analytical lens, the PrincipalGPT exercise required them to take a comprehensive approach by identifying the principal’s concerns and applying the law to solve problems on the spot.

Students have responded enthusiastically. Many report that the activity demystifies the law, showing it as a flexible framework rather than a set of hard-and-fast rules. The chatbot’s instant feedback also lets students adjust their approach in real time. By simulating real-world applications, the assignment has helped many students contextualize the law in ways they had not considered before.

While students enjoy the insight they gain from completing the assignment, they also try to “break” PrincipalGPT’s programming. Thomas said some of the toughest challenges have been keeping the model in character and preventing it from accessing its own knowledge base to answer the user’s legal questions. Thomas has found that some large language models perform better than others in varying aspects of the assignment.

The success of PrincipalGPT has already sent ripples beyond the UF classroom. Administrators from Florida K-12 schools have approached Thomas to discuss plans to develop similar chatbot-driven materials for their professional development workshops. 

As schools and universities continue to integrate AI into the curriculum, PrincipalGPT exemplifies how a well-engineered prompt can bring the law from an abstract concept into real-world dialogue. It offers a hands-on way for students to test their reasoning in a safe, realistic environment, and it shows how educators can harness existing technology to deepen practice-oriented learning. 

“Developing a tool like this is so easy once you figure out what you want the custom GPT to do,” Thomas said. “There’s a learning curve, but it is really intuitive, so if there’s something that interests you, don’t be afraid to try it out. With a little creativity, these tools can be used to supplement students’ learning in so many ways.”