Artificial intelligence has become increasingly difficult to separate from the classroom, with students now able to use tools such as ChatGPT to answer questions, check their work and even complete assignments within seconds.
For teachers, that has created a different challenge. Rather than simply asking whether students are using AI, some are now having to decide when its use is acceptable, how to teach students to use it properly and, perhaps most importantly, how to tell whether they have actually understood the lesson.
Um Shaikha, a high-school physics teacher in the UAE, has chosen to work with the technology rather than try to keep it out of her classroom completely.
“I realised I could either work with them or against them,” she told Khaleej Times. “If I simply tell them not to use AI, they will probably use it without telling me anyway. So I would rather show them that I am okay with them using it and guide them on how to use it properly.”
That does not mean students can turn to AI for everything.
Um Shaikha said she is clear about when she wants students to use it. In some assignments, she deliberately asks them to turn to AI, but the aim is not simply to generate an answer and submit it.
Instead, she might ask students to generate no more than two paragraphs so they actually have to read the response, decide whether it gives them what they need and then edit it or give the AI further prompts.
By keeping the response short, she wants students to engage with what the tool produces rather than copy a long answer without reading it.
As they change their prompts and ask for adjustments, they also begin to understand how the instructions they give AI can change the response they receive.
“If I am the one telling the student to use AI for the task, then I don’t consider that cheating,” she said.
She may also ask students to use AI to confirm information they already have or help with something such as the format of a poster, rather than having it complete work they are expected to do themselves.
Um Shaikha said students sometimes understand how to use AI better than teachers might expect.
She recalled one of her students showing her how she could get a more accurate answer by giving ChatGPT specific instructions, including telling it which Grade 12 physics textbook and version to use.
“I was surprised because the students already had that understanding,” she said.
Um Shaikha said she also took a week-long course on artificial intelligence last year, where she learnt more about how questions should be entered and phrased when using AI tools.
She now applies that when guiding her students, showing them how to phrase their questions rather than simply entering a question directly.
For Um Shaikha, the aim is to let students use AI as another tool while still making sure they read, question and work with the information it gives them.
Is homework still effective?
Wadha Saeed, also a high-school physics teacher, is more concerned about what AI means for traditional homework and how teachers can know whether a student genuinely understands the work they submit.
For her, the steps a student follows can sometimes be more revealing than the final answer.
“I teach them my method and the steps I use to solve the problem,” Wadha told Khaleej Times. “If they solve it step by step using the same method, I can see that they understand what they are doing.”
Students may still turn to ChatGPT to check an answer, but Wadha said she can sometimes notice when a solution does not resemble the method taught in class.
She has also noticed students increasingly checking their teachers answers against ChatGPT.
“They depend on the answers to the point where they come back and ask me, ‘Miss, is this answer correct?’” she said. “But it is also good that they are checking and comparing instead of depending only on our answers.”
That has changed how she views homework completed at home.
“Honestly, traditional homework at home isn’t effective for them anymore,” she said. “If I give them homework, they can just get the answer using AI.”
Instead, she prefers giving students work to complete in front of her at school, where she can see how they approach a question and whether they understand the steps involved.
But Wadha does not see AI only as something students use. She has also found it useful in her own work, particularly when analysing information about students and their performance.
Um Shaikha also uses AI in her own work, using it to edit worksheets and make them more visually appealing for her students.
For both teachers, AI has therefore become a tool on both sides of the classroom. While students can use it to check information and support their learning, teachers are also finding ways to use it when preparing lessons and assessing students.
Wadha believes the way students are taught and the curriculum will eventually have to develop alongside artificial intelligence as students become increasingly comfortable using it.
For both teachers, the question is no longer simply whether students should be using AI. It is how to make sure they are still thinking, reading and understanding when they do.
Source: Khaleej Times