One GTA school is now assessing students by using simple pen and paper because teachers say they see the quality of work declining and believe it’s because of AI.
It’s been almost two years since AI giant ChatGPT was introduced to the world. Today the site receives about 2.5 billion prompts each day according to Exploding Topics. And 45 per cent of ChatGPT users are under the age of 25.
At Ascension of Our Lord Secondary School in Mississauga, Ont., math teacher Catherine Chimienti finds it is hard to trust students won’t be using AI to complete work. A month into the school year, and only two tests later, Chimienti is starting to notice a pattern.
Homework and assignments seem to always have answers without any work shown, she says. And when asked to verbally explain their work, students are not able to elaborate.
“I don’t trust that they’re not using their phones,” says Chimienti, “same with anything that you take home says Chimienti, it’s always a risk of cheating.”
Students from Ascension Secondary School were asked how often AI is used to complete schoolwork. Out of nine students who completed an Emerge poll, seven use AI to complete school work.
Breakdown of student use of AI Graph by Emerge
Marta Krzyzanoski is an English teacher and the department head at Ascension Secondary School. Over the course of her career teaching has come full circle.
“We’re going back to, you know, the days before computers. I find that I’m doing way more work pen to paper, and I’m doing way more in-class assignments.”
In Krzyzanoski’s classroom, most of the work is completed during class time. There also had to be a change in the way students are assessed. Krzyzanoski has been turning to more creative and oral forms of assessment to “try to mitigate that use of AI.”
Another issue that AI raises is the lack of trust in oneself.
“I think that, you know, students are having more difficulty trusting themselves,” says Krzyzanoski. “I think they’re scared that they’re going to be wrong and they know that they can go to the AI and that the AI will give them something.”
Ascension Secondary School is part of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) which places importance on allowing students the opportunity to use AI ethically and responsibly. The board especially tries to educate about future expectations.
Spokesperson Bruce Campbell from the DPCDSB wrote in an email, “With senior students, information on AI guidelines adopted by local universities and colleges has been posted for their convenience to develop a sense of what future academic responsibilities and expectations are.”
According to teachers interviewed by Emerge, students are not following school policies, regarding an educated and ethical approach to AI. At Ascension Secondary School, of those polled, only two in nine students have had formal education about using AI as a tool.
Breakdown of student AI education. Graph by Emerge.
A Pew Research Center study shows that approximately 26 per cent of American teens use AI to help with school. The percentage doubled with only 13 per cent of teens using AI in 2023.
The teachers at Ascension Secondary School are experiencing something not too far from what these statistics suggest.
At the university level, Dr. Karey Rowe, the chair of business at the University of Guelph-Humber, embraces the change brought by AI.
“I always equate it to when the calculator came out and people were counting on fingers and people were scared about using technology to complete some of their tasks. And then eventually over time, people realized that it’s not a threat. It’s actually the tool that will assist you.”
An Ipsos study shows that 30 per cent of Canadians generally view the development of AI to be beneficial, 34 per cent see it as a negative and 36 per cent are in between.
“So, the question is, how do we assess students in this space,” Rowe asks.
Much like Krzyzanoski, Rowe’s approach to assessment has shifted towards more oral and in-person assessments.
Rowe believes that traditional papers and assignments are no longer something to rely on, preferring oral assessments in the face of AI’s rise.
“I think it’s the way we teach and evaluate students that needs to change.”
*Photo by: Ron Lach, Pexels, Creative Commons License