The usage of generative AI technologies in school classrooms continues to be a contentious issue, but experts say this technology also offers some big opportunities to improve teaching and learning.
One of them is Professor Matt Bower, a Researcher at Macquarie University School of Education.
“There are some great opportunities for students to derive educational benefits from AI, though students are still going to require the basic knowledge and skills of the subject at hand without AI assistance,” Professor Bower told MCERA.
“In assessment of subjects, we need to clearly distinguish which tasks students can and cannot use AI, and then assess them accordingly.”
‘The best results are achieved when humans and technology work together’
Professor Bower said some tasks that require teachers checking that students have learned the required information should be clearly stated and structured in a way where students need to complete it without using generative AI technology.
“For more authentic tasks where students can have the option to use AI, those are the ones we can set for homework,” he said.
“Studies have found that people acting without generative AI assistance are increasingly outperformed by generative AI alone, however, the best results are achieved when humans and technology work together.”
Professor Bower says the focus should be not on lower order thinking, but critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.
“We also need to increasingly shift our focus towards ethics, empathy, enterprise, and engagement,” he said. “I see artificial intelligence as a wonderful catalyst for positive pedagogical change, rather than a threat.”
‘If we don’t have AI in assessment, how are we to prepare students where AI is everywhere?’
Professor Phillip Dawson, Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University, said inappropriate AI use gets in the way of teachers being able to certify a graduate’s capabilities.
“It matters that we only graduate people who can do what they can do what they do,” Professor Dawson told MCERA.
“Assessment and learning experiences should equip students to participate ethically and actively in a society where AI is ubiquitous. If we don’t have AI in assessment, how are we to prepare students where AI is everywhere?”
Professor Dawson said forming trustworthy judgments about student learning in a time of AI requires “multiple, inclusive, and contextualised approaches to assessment.”
“I’m increasingly of the view that if you aren’t supervising something, you can’t be sure about how AI was or wasn’t used. My advice is to secure some tasks through methods such as exams, placements or process check ins, and then accept that other tasks are going to see significant AI use –It might even be a good thing,” he said.
“Using evaluative judgement – which is our ability to decide if something of sufficient quality – becomes really important in the time of AI, because we’ve got to know if AI is giving us garbage.”