GUEST PODCAST: EdTechnical Series 5 Episode 6
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This season EdTech founder Libby Hills and AI researcher Owen Henkel continue to speak with leading researchers, practitioners and educators on the EdTechnical podcast series about the cutting edge of AI in education. They will break down complex AI concepts into non-technical insights to better understand what the research says and help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype.
In this EdTechnical short, Owen is joined by guest co-host Alyssa Van Camp, research lead at EdTechnical, to discuss a recent paper on the learning penalty from generative AI. Drawing on survey data from around 27,000 secondary school students in China, the study looks at how using generative AI may affect homework productivity and learning.
The headline finding is that students who use AI score higher on their homework, but they spend less time on it and their exam results drop. The findings fit with research on how effort shapes learning, though the study design has some limitations. Students self-reported their AI use, time spent on homework was measured indirectly through the school’s learning platform, and the paper gives little insight into the quality of the exams used to assess learning.
Surprisingly, around one in five students used AI without a drop in their exam scores. These students spent as much time on their homework as their peers, suggesting they used AI as a tool to help, rather than offload to. What does this mean for designing AI tools that support learning? And how might homework need to change?
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Research paper discussed in this episode: The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
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