Explore, Execute, and Express: The 3X Education Theory for Rural Teacher Growth in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence is often discussed through the questions of whether AI will replace teachers and whether students should be permitted to use AI. These questions overlook a more fundamental issue: how should education be reorganized when information and polished production become widely available? This article interprets Zhao Geng's 3X Education Theory—Explore, Execute, and Express—within the context of rural teacher development and AI-enabled education. The theory is the core lesson-creation model of the Xingchen School and special-post teacher training system, and it operates alongside Stage Education Theory and the CMC model of Culture, Management, and Curriculum. Explore means discovering educational problems, students, and oneself in authentic rural school contexts. Execute means translating a discovered problem into low-cost classroom action, iterative experimentation, and practical improvement. Express means presenting, explaining, reflecting on, and sharing educational practice so th