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Artificial Intelligence must be used to improve, not hinder, the learning of students
Graduate Student, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University
On the 30th of November 2022, the firm OpenAI has released a bot for conversation known as ChatGPT. ChatGPT can answer questions that users type through large databases and compose well-written essays such as legal briefs, poetry that is a mix of Shakespeare or computer code, or lyrics that take the form from Rodgers and Hammerstein, to just some. Some commentators and educators are worried about ” The end of high school English” since students can simply use ChatGPT.
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In the month of January in January of this year, the New York City Department of Education made the bold move to address these concerns with barring access to ChatGPT across all devices and networks of the department. A spokesperson for the department justification for the move was “concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.” The spokesperson was also skeptical about the educational benefits of the technology, declaring that: “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
“The essays produced by ChatGPT are still identifiable as bot-produced, rather than human-produced.”
The consensus that is emerging between opinion writers, educators as well as researchers, is professors and teachers may be fooled by the fact that students could write essays by ChatGPT. But the essays created by ChatGPT remain identifiable as bot-produced and not human-created, because of several fundamental mistakes. The high school English essay, which the program wrote, for instance, was thin and did not contain any references. Another report suggests that this program has incorrect details and doesn’t give an an enthralling perspective.
On our own test we (Kathy Hirsh-Pasek) provided the bot with an essay which I would like my Honors students in psychology to respond. The bot did an excellent job. But, it produced nothing higher than an A or Cand an essay. Why? So far, the bot has not been able to differentiate from the “classic” journal article in the field to be cited from a different journal article that analyzes the same material. The bot can also continue to cite the same sources repeatedly time. These issues can be fixed with the next version.
“The bot is more of a synthesizer than a critical thinker.”
The main point, however, is that the bot functions much more of a synthesizer rather than an independent thinker. It is a good candidate for an essay on contrast and contrast; however, it’s not as capable of generating a distinctive thesis and then arguing for that thesis.
Create knowledge transforms
As educators, we try to help our students become what John Bruer, former president of the McDonnell Foundation, dubbed “knowledge transformers” instead of “knowledge digesters”. This means we place more importance on memory more than critical thinking. One of the main issues that many educational system today is that they place more importance on studying facts more than retaining the information over time, applying the knowledge to new circumstances and generating an entirely new way of thinking about a subject.
How can we effectively use ChatGPT to assist our students become knowledge-transformers? An writer or an education teacher as well as an educator all believe that ChatGPT can help students write in the same similar way calculators assist students with math. ChatGPT is a possibility to be a crucial tool for writers who wish to improve their critical thinking abilities along with their communication abilities.
“ChatGPT has the potential to become an important tool for writers who want to hone their critical thinking skills along with their communication skills.”
What could this look like in real life? Teachers are responding with innovative strategies. Adam Stevens, a high school teacher of history located in New York City who opposes the district’s decision to ban ChatGPT, sees it as a useful method to stimulate, not restrict, critical thinking. Students can assess the response of the program’s first time to a prompt, and then think about ways to improve it by revising. Other teachers support an identical approach and recommend using the program to concentrate on writing.
Learning that is more engaging, deeper and deeper
A lot of students are probably better than their teachers when it comes to creating questions and obtaining solid answers from ChatGPT. They must understand why –at at least for now–ChatGPT will be given a lower mark than they would. It’s thrilling to observe how rapidly educators are reacting to this change in the classroom and are recognizing the value of chatGPT as an instructional tool to enhance and deepen their learning.
The traditional model of education that requires teachers to deliver details that are later compressed and repeated, will not prepare students to be successful in the classroom — or the future jobs. It is time for that model to go through a peaceful death. When used correctly, ChatGPT can be a teacher’s friend and an incredible tool for students.
