The use of artificial intelligence by high school students is now so widespread that many students cannot imagine learning without it, a study has found.
Education professor Miriam Tanti led a team at La Trobe University that conducted multiple studies this year examining the use of AI in learning among secondary school students in two states.
The study found that many students reported that they “really struggle to imagine studying without AI,” while others admitted they would now not study for exams without AI.
“The risk is not necessarily plagiarism or fraud. The risk is the illusion of understanding,” Tanti says. “They think they know a topic because they’re putting it into a chatbot, but they’re bypassing the labor-intensive thought processes that make learning stick. That’s the real challenge in front of us.”
Next month, Tanti and his colleagues plan to release an instructional guide that emphasizes the need for explicit instruction (where teachers model tasks step-by-step) to show students how they should engage with AI for learning.
“What we’re saying is that learning happens through specific cognitive processes, by managing attention and acquiring knowledge. So generational AI helps when you protect those cognitive processes and protect that effort,” Tanti said.
St Leonards College Brighton is one of many schools experimenting with AI. Several teachers at Bayside School trained an AI chatbot to provide feedback to students outside of school hours. The teacher then closely monitors the feedback.
“It’s like a mini-teacher,” Grade 10 student Isabel Skuse said of the bot developed for her economics class. “[My teacher] I programmed it to sometimes mark tasks that needed help and provide feedback for her to give. Basically speaking like her and speaking like her will be generated. We’re looking for lots of feedback. ”
There is also a lot of discussion about the responsible use of technology in schools.
Starting in Year 8, students learn about the biases, illusions, and overconfidence inherent in many chatbots, and learn to be critical of AI output.
For example, Isabelle used AI as a starting point to write a history essay on the role of the sea in Viking and Polynesian civilizations. She said the AI’s responses were helpful, but the answers were too general and included a lot of stereotypes. She then marked her own additions based on her own responses.
“Teachers push it back to students and say, ‘Okay, okay, given this answer, what else can I do to validate this answer? What else can I do to critique this answer?'” said Charles Neave, director of digital innovation at St. Leonard’s College.
How students write AI prompts is another area where teachers test students. “We’re showing them that they should actually get a wide range of answers that consider different aspects of the question,” Neave said. Some educators are considering tasks that grade students based on the path they sent the chatbot on and the counter-prompts they used to get them back on track.
But as the introduction of rapidly evolving technology into schools pushes back against AI’s dominance, experts worry that students who rely on it are bypassing the cognitive benefits of traditional learning.
The Victorian Department of Education is taking a cautious approach. While it does not prescribe a single platform for schools, it is monitoring platforms as it prepares to issue guidance later this year to address emerging risks, such as over-reliance on student learning.
John Paul University in Frankston was one of the early adopters of the use of chatbots in classes in 2023. This technology has changed expectations of academic integrity for unsupervised assignments.
“We have told teachers that the moment they allow students to do any work in their rooms without supervision, or tell them to work from home, they must assume that AI is being used,” Deputy Principal Michael O’Keefe said.
Generative AI, which students can use to create “original” content such as essays, images, and reports, is also forcing educators to think carefully about protecting the learning process, with some schools doubling down on their use of paper and pen.
At Haileybury, students are using a traffic light system for tasks that use AI. For example, a green light for an artwork might mean the entire piece can be designed using AI, or an essay marked yellow might mean it’s limited to brainstorming only. This year, students have returned to using pen and paper for most secondary school exams, with the risk of using AI to generate answers during assessments.
“If you just have a pen and paper, you’re somewhat bulletproof,” said Anna Sarver, the school’s vice principal for teaching and learning.
“That’s why we focus on foundational skills. We want our students to be creative, we don’t want them to be burdened with important aspects of their learning, and we don’t want them to underestimate the value of their efforts.”
Oliver Schrules, a year 11 student at Haileybury College, said he used the AI by giving it a marking rubric for assessment and asking for feedback on his work.
“AI can give you feedback on that and tell you how to restructure things or improve your work. I think it’s good to use AI as a tool while still keeping your work as your own.”
Still, even his computer science classes now include more supervised handwriting assessments.
“Personally, I still believe in pen and paper,” Schrule said. “As well as ensuring that your work is original, I think ideas can be expressed in the most original and creative way on paper. It helps you hammer ideas and theories into your head rather than just typing them.”
start of A summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our morning newsletter.
Jackson Graham is The Age’s education reporter. He used to be a commentary reporter.Connect via email.
