Teachers say critical thinking among students is declining due to AI use
The National Education Union two in three secondary school teachers felt this was the case.
A new survey of teach of secondary school pupils’ has found they belief critical thinking is declining due to them using artificial intelligence (AI).
Two in three (66%) secondary school English teachers agreed their students’ critical thinking has declined because of AI usage in a survey by the National Education Union (NEU).
That's double the number of Primary school teachers.
Of those surveyed 28% say AI use has hit pupils’ critical thinking.
National Education Union
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said AI must be regulated so that schools have appropriate tools that do not undermine how pupils learn.
“Students must be able to think for themselves. This is at the heart of learning, but our survey shows a reliance on AI is having an effect on students’ ability to think critically,” he added.
“AI should be there to enhance rather than diminish student learning. Teaching students about acceptable AI uses requires time in the school week and that time is in short supply.”
Teachers reporting using AI tools regularly is increasing. The survey found 76% now report using AI tools for their day-to-day work, up from 53% from an equivalent survey last year.
The main things they said they are using it for including creating resources (61%), planning lessons (41%), and for administrative tasks (38%).
Only 7% said they would use AI tools for marking.
Schools falling behind with AI policy
Meanwhile, fewer than half of the total 9,408 teachers responding to the survey said their school has a policy for the use of AI by staff and students.
“Children no longer feel the need to spell as voice-to-text replaces knowledge,” one teacher responding to the survey said.
Another said they have increasingly recently seen cheating in exams and homework from AI.
AI tutoring tools are set to be available to schools by the end of 2027, the Government has said.
They will be targeted at disadvantaged children in years 9 to 11, in an attempt to help close the disadvantaged gap in achievement.
However, only 14% of teachers responding to the NEU survey said they agreed with this policy.
Several respondents expressed scepticism that AI tutors would give pupils the support they needed without proper human interaction with a teacher.
Recent analysis by Oxford University Press of stories by children aged five to 11 submitted to a competition found AI was increasingly mentioned in their work.