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Transformational and problematic: Study reveals teachers conflicted over use of AI in education

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The conflict felt by teachers when it comes to the increasing role of artificial intelligence in education and teaching have been revealed in a new study.
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Generic AI tools are too unreliable and inaccurate for them to be used effectively in the classroom according to two-thirds of teachers in the research. Three-quarters also believe that student misuse of AI will be a persistent problem in the future.

However, it reveals a conflicted picture with many teachers stating that they use AI and even more acknowledging that it is going to “transform education in unforeseeable ways”.

The research has been published by international examination board Trinity College London and involved survey responses from 1,012 UK teachers. It is clear from the findings that many teachers are worried about the implications of AI. The study finds:

  • A quarter of teachers (23%) said they had used AI in their teaching in the last term, with the most common use being to produce lesson plans and resources, to reduce general workload, to help with in-class teaching, and to create student assessments.
  • Many are unsure about future adoption – 64% say that AI is too unreliable to assess student work or to help with resource and lesson planning and 52% refuse to rely on it for these purposes.
  • Schools should not encourage teachers to use AI to mark, give feedback and grade student work according to 38% of the teachers – although 34% think they should.
  • Schools should not encourage students to use AI as a “co-pilot” for homework according to 48% – although 21% think they should.
  • Three-quarters (74%) think that AI misuse by students will be a persistent problem in the coming years.

Almost one-third of the teachers (29%) said that student use of AI in the classroom should be banned, but 33% disagreed and 38% were unsure.

A majority agreed that the use of AI will “revolutionise teaching in unforeseeable ways within five years”, with 47% believing that it will improve student outcomes simply by allowing teachers to spend more time working directly with students.

In October, the Department for Education published a position statement on the use of AI in education (DfE, 2023a) and is currently investigating ways in which AI can be integrated into schools – not least to help to reduce teacher workload.

The results of a call for evidence last year showed that the 567 teachers who responded were mainly using AI to automate tasks and reduce workload – for example for creating or adapting resources and to produce schemes of work, for writing emails to parents, and for writing documents related to students. Only a “small number” of the respondents said they were using AI to help with grading and feedback.

The evidence summary (DfE, 2023b) states: “Teachers using AI tools in their role felt they were able to save time by automating tasks. Quicker lesson planning, scheduling, note-taking, marking, content creation and report writing led to significant time savings for some (though time was still required to check and edit outputs). This enabled teachers to change how they spent their time.”

Classroom use of AI reported in the call for evidence focused on practical support for teaching: “Respondents used AI tools in lessons, for example to generate a good writing example, to explain a complicated concept or idea, as a search tool in class, to convert texts to images as lesson stimuli, and as an aid for specific tasks and activities (e.g. to generate a structure for an essay in a lesson).”

While the DfE seems enthusiastic about the potential of AI to reduce workload, it is more cautious about its use within teaching.

The DfE policy paper (2023a) states: “Generative AI tools can make certain written tasks quicker and easier but cannot replace the judgement and deep subject knowledge of a human expert. It is more important than ever that our education system ensures pupils acquire knowledge, expertise and intellectual capability.”

In the Trinity research, there was agreement that AI must be addressed in the national curriculum, although which aspects should take priority proved a more complex question. The responding teachers said that:

  • Students should be taught the ethical implications of AI (54%)
  • All students should be taught relevant AI skills (46%)
  • Students should be given a foundational understanding of AI works (38%)
  • Students should be taught how to develop AI that is fair and unbiased (34%)
  • Think AI should be integrated into maths and science classes (27%)

Erez Tocker, chief executive of Trinity College London, said: “Teachers’ scepticism towards generic AI tools underscores not a rejection but a call for precision and reliability. Notably, the research indicates that a quarter of teachers are already incorporating AI into their instruction, signalling a readiness for change, provided these tools meet their exacting standards.”