AI and Teaching and Learning

What is ChatGPT?

• ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system that OpenAI released in November to show off and test what a very large, powerful AI system can accomplish. 
• You can ask it countless questions and often will get answers that are useful.
• This is what ChatGPT explains about how it can be used for the benefit of teaching and learning:
• One possible way that ChatGPT could be used for teaching and learning in the classroom is as a tool for generating language-based exercises and activities. For example, a teacher could use ChatGPT to generate prompts for writing exercises or conversation practice, or to create customized quizzes and tests for students. ChatGPT could also be used to generate personalized feedback on student work, or to provide suggestions for further learning materials or resources.

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The Negatives 

• With any new software, there will always be outcry regarding how problematic is in for the classroom. To begin, let's explore a few key of the limitations:
• Reliability: As OpenAI emphasizes, ChatGPT can give you wrong (and sometimes quite hilarious) answers.
• Validity: “AI ‘language models’ have a fatal flaw - they are superb wordsmiths, but they have no understanding of how the world works” (Sharples)
• Practicality: Naturally, this will offer issues surrounding plagiarism 
• Trust: Any form of extended writing for homework must now be questioned
• Over-confidence: Students and teachers believe it to be significantly more intelligent and beneficial than it is.
• Intellectual Property: How could you reference AI properly with regards to copyright infringements?
• Cost: Currently Chat GPT is free, but we can assume this is going to be an additional cost from EduTech companies if fully embraced by the profression. 

Student Benefit 1 – Retrieval Practice 

• One of the easiest methods for students to utilise the benefits of AI en masse would be for simple revision and retrieval tasks. 

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• See the example prompt from me and the AI output. 

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• Students could easily this task as a homework or a quick review within the lesson.

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• It can also be used for progression and differentiation easily.

Student Benefit 2: Explanation of Content

• When asked simple prompts, the AI output is helpful in the majority of examples. 
• Students could use this to revise core knowledge of texts, as the example demonstrates:

Student Benefit 3 – Deconstruction of Model Answers (Analysis)

• If students are taught how to write GCSE questions well, they can expect an output to offer a fairly accurate response.
• Students can then identify what the AI answer has done well, and where improvements should be made.
• Students can then use this as a platform to re-write or revise the model paragraph. 

Student Benefit 3 – Deconstruction of Model Answers (Creative Writing)

• ChatGPT appears to be more successful in generating more creative responses, which will support students in their Language Paper 1 Q5 answers or for developing writing at KS3.
• Student could then be asked to identify language techniques, ambitious vocabulary choices, connotations, etc.

Student Benefit 3 – Deconstruction of Model Answers (Rhetorical Writing)

• It can also be very effective at writing responses for more persuasive questions:

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• This could easily be used for students to identify interesting vocabulary choices, grammatical structures, persuasive techniques, etc.

Student Benefit 4 – Proof Reading and Editing Work 

• As a non-SEND specialist, I don't want to comment on the benefits AI might have for specific learning needs regarding literacy, but for simply highlighting grammatical and spelling errors, it can work relatively effectively.

Student Benefit 5 – Development of Elaborative Interrogation

• As students ask better prompts to the AI output, they develop their ability to ask better questions about a specific topic.
• For example, ‘Who is Macbeth?’ is a far more generic question which would generate a far broader response. Alternatively, a more perceptive question such as ‘How is Macbeth a good example of a Renaissance Tragedy?’ would produce a far more nuanced answer.
• Teaching students to ask better questions will undoubtedly help and support their recall and retention.

Teacher Benefit 1: Question Formulation

• Similar to the retrieval practice for students, AI can generate questions rapidly for your class.
• These could also be changed to multiple choice questions.

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Teacher Benefit 1: Answer Formulation

• The AI output can then answer these questions relatively successfully as well.

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Teacher Benefit 2: Marking

• If provided with a mark scheme, even a rather generic English Language AQA descriptor, the AI output is accurate in its marking of an uploaded paragraph.

Teacher Benefit 2: Marking

• It can also provide answers of what a lower mark would look like, so that students can deconstruct and identify the mark-awarding elements of the successful answer.

Teacher Benefit 3: Targets for Improvement

• After understanding the mark scheme, ChatGPT can then offer targets for improvement on a piece of work.
• It can identify where a student’s work has demonstrated good understanding, offering specific examples.
• It can then offer how they can develop their work further.

Teacher Benefit 4: Modelling

• Following this, the AI output can then write a successful model paragraph to demonstrate these targets in particular.

Teacher Benefit 6: Lesson Planning

• Based on a simple prompt, AI can produce a pretty helpful lesson plan with specific questions to ask, learning objectives, model answers, differentiation tasks, and ideas for possible future lessons.

Teacher Benefit 7: Translation

• Although there are many instances of software offering similar support, AI can be a useful tool for translating text for EAL students.

Overview

• EduAI (and ChatGPT) is very much in its infancy. There are obvious limitations to its human-level intelligence and language use.
• There are naturally going to be issues regarding plagiarism and inappropriate student usage.
• However, as Mollick and Mollick (2022) argue, AI can be utilised effectively in the classroom to overcome three barriers to learning:
• Improving information transfer
• Breaking the illusion of explanatory depth
• Training students to critically evaluate explanations.
• No matter the challenges and inability of staff to grapple with the difficulty of how best to use it, AI is certainly going to play a positive role in teaching and learning in the very near future.