(tnnd) – According to a new RAND report, teachers are dazzling with artificial intelligence tools, but AI adoption has not yet had a major impact on classrooms.
The report found a quarter of teachers, and nearly 60% of principals use AI tools.
However, use is uneven on the subject matter in schools and on the level of wealth and poverty.
Even teachers who use AI don’t use it often.
Julia Kaufman, senior policy researcher at RAND, said so far there is a lack of research into how rapidly evolving AI is affecting educational outcomes.
“If the teacher or principal is using AI, it may make them more efficient,” Kaufman said. “But I don’t know how much it improves the quality of their teaching, and it may not have actually improved.”
The RAND report, published this week, is based on a spring survey of teachers and principals last spring through the research institute’s American educator panel.
Kaufman, co-director of the American panel of educators, said that AI defined it as including chatbots like ChatGPT, adaptive learning systems like Khan Academy, and virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa.
Overall, 25% of teachers said they used AI.
Almost two-thirds of these teachers said they would simply use AI to plan their lessons.
About 10% said they used AI alone with their students.
A quarter of AI users said they tapped technology for both lesson planning and classroom activities.
AI usage was higher than English teachers (nearly 40%, science teachers (37%) were mathematics teachers (21%) or general primary teachers, 18%.
Kaufman said most AI users only did that a few times a month.
“Most teachers don’t use it on a daily basis,” she said.
Overall, AI use has not increased significantly since previous surveys of RAND in the fall of 2023.
And many teachers use AI themselves without the duties or guidance from school administrators.
A high school science teacher told Rand that he would use AI to save time. They used it to edit word definitions, summarise long articles, and adjust the reading level of assignments.
English teachers said that using AI would help propose group activities for lessons on the literature. They then edited and tailored the AI-generated materials to suit the needs of their students.
Nearly 60% of principals used AI primarily for communications.
Kaufman said it might be an email or letter to his parents, or that it could help him enter the school’s handbook.
She said previous surveys of district supervisors demonstrated broad belief that AI will change the way we educate our students.
But so far, teachers have only actually scratched the surface.
Both are superior in low-poverty schools, as defined by the share of students receiving free and low-cost lunches.
But teachers using AI at high-poverty schools use it more frequently, Kaufman said.
She said that teachers at high-poverty schools may have more challenges to access AI tools, but they will find greater benefits based on resource availability and student needs.
Rand provides some recommendations in the report, seeking more research and more coordination, and uses intentional, evidence-supported AI to help students with quality of instruction and student learning. has been improved.
Kaufman also says his parents are “probably swimming in the same AI sea,” and he is looking for many of the same answers as his teacher.
She said parents and teachers need more information about the ideal use of AI.
