Only 16% of teachers think AI helps students

The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) published the results of their annual teacher survey. Over 4,000 teachers responded to questions on workload and AI.

When it comes to AI, the results were clear: teachers are extremely concerned and skeptical of the promise of AI.

We highlight some of the survey's findings below.

"AI will improve student learning outcomes"

This is possibly the most important question regarding AI. Does it help students learn?

59% of teachers think that AI will not improve student learning outcomes, a further 31% are not sure.

Only 16% of teachers think that AI will actually improve student learning outcomes.

This is the fundamental question of any classroom technology: If it does not help students learn, then why is it in the classroom?

"AI will cause students to become overly dependent on AI tools for learning"

89% of teachers think that AI will cause students to be overly dependent on AI tools for learning.

Teachers are already seeing how students are becoming dependent on AI. University lecturers have told us at farmers markets how their incoming students are unable to think without the aid of chatbots like ChatGPT.

"AI will negatively impact students' development of critical thinking skills."

87% of teachers agree that AI will negatively impact students' development of critical thinking skills.

"If students use critical thinking, then AI will not be a problem", is a sentiment often used to wave away fears about the negative effects of AI.

Teachers are already seeing how AI causes students to simply accept the facts presented to them. Chatbots like Copilot write in persuasive marketing-speak, in a first-person perspective. Students learning new facts don't have the experience to critique them.

"AI will make it harder for teachers to know what students actually understand."

AI is often used as a crutch by students and professionals, to answer questions or write essays. It may appear that the user understands the content, but later testing reveals that they remember little. This has been shown in various scientific studies, from when 26,000 high-school students started using AI, their homework scores increased by ~20%, then exam scores decreased by ~20%, to AI users overrating their own skills.

These effects are already known by teachers, with 83% of teachers agreeing that AI makes it harder to know what students understand.

"AI will provide students with misleading or incorrect information"

AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot are built on technology that does not distinguish between "true" and "likely". They routinely reproduce biases, mis-state facts or agree with incorrect statements from users.

Teachers are acutely aware of this, with 81% agreeing that AI will provide students with misleading or incorrect information.

This again raises the question, why is a product that produces incorrect information allowed in a learning environment?

"AI will increase student engagement or motivation"

Only 21% of teachers think that AI will increase engagement or motivation. The vast majority disagree or are unsure.

AI cannot be sold on its improvement to learning outcomes, because it does not improve learning outcomes. So it is often sold on its ability to keep students engaged. But students hate AI. They, like teachers, feel it is being forced on them or feel pressured to use it to keep up with other students who do use AI.