A quarter of the teachers who use AI do that for review work

It is a “fundamental change” in the world of teachers: artificial intelligence (AI). The OECD concludes this in its five-year survey among teachers and school heads in primary and secondary education. 280,000 participated, from 17,000 schools in 55 countries and areas.

In each of the 55 countries and areas investigated, teachers use AI, on average 36 percent of teachers do that. The standards differ considerably per country: three -quarters of teachers in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates use AI in their work, for example, compared to only one fifth of teachers in France and Japan. In terms of AI use, the Netherlands is on the average of the OECD countries.

The report provides a lot of statistical information, such as that nine out of ten teachers are satisfied with their job. The average age of teachers: 45. And 70 percent of teachers are women, in the Netherlands that is 56 percent. The conclusions that the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) about the Netherlands does not fully meet the requirements that the researchers imposed on themselves: there were fewer reactions than intended.

Check with AI

Of the teachers who work with artificial intelligence, two thirds do this, for example, to quickly take information, or to summarize a text. An approximately equally large group uses AI to make plans for lessons.

Of the AI-using teachers, a quarter also uses it to check assignments and tests. Uzbekistan is an outlier in this area: 85 percent of the AI ​​teachers look with it, in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam, at least half do that.

For Dutch teachers who use AI, it is primarily an instrument to plan lessons

For Dutch teachers who use AI (a third), it is primarily an instrument to plan lessons (67 percent), or to learn something about a subject or to summarize information quickly (50 percent). Checking is seen by 16 percent of this group as a task for AI.

The question is, writes the OECD: is this a good development, or not? It is understandable that teachers go to an efficient way of checking: 40 percent of the teachers in the study indicate that the review work is a source of stress. AI tools can be used to quickly check grammar, coherence and structure, writes the OECD. Time that is released can use teachers to supervise their students.

Vigilant

At the same time, the OECD sees reasons to be vigilant. The technology has taken a huge flight in a short time, with the introduction of Chatgpt at the end of 2022. Now the instrument is being used en masse, while there is no policy or training for it in many areas. The tech companies that provide the service have a lot of power, compared to little supervision. Governments must form a policy for how technology is used in education, writes the OECD, but often cannot keep up with developments with laws and regulations.

Moreover, the OECD wonders whether AI does not reinforce inequalities rather than reduces: AI checks fairly, does AI treat everyone equally, are context and cultural differences not lost? And, the OECD wonders, do students still do their best if they hand in their work at an AI instead of a person?

Teachers see those shadow sides too. Half of the teachers from the study believe that AI should be excluded from education at all. One in ten of the respondents works at a school where AI use is not allowed. And the group of teachers who think they have insufficient knowledge and skills to use AI in education, partly overlaps with the group that uses it: three in four.

The research focuses on the experience of teachers, but students naturally also use AI, on a large scale. And teachers know: seven in ten indicate that they think that their students can use AI to present work as their own work. Four out of ten think that AI reinforces prejudices, can put students on the wrong path, or can be disadvantageous for privacy.

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