AI in Education: Identifying Best Practices by Examining How Teachers Really Feel

Since ChatGPT’s release in 2022 and the subsequent boom in artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, an increase in AI use among students and teachers has illuminated both excitement and concerns.

The growing popularity of AI has educators, parents, students, and product creators asking themselves:  What exactly is AI’s place in education? And how can we ensure it is helpful, not harmful? 

One way to frame AI’s role in education is to analyze ways it can be used as a tool to extend learning instead of replace learning.

To do so, we’ve compiled desk research and conducted surveys of our own to identify how educators feel about AI in education and pinpoint the most effective ways it can be used. 

Our own research includes survey feedback from educators and administrators around the world working with students from preschool to higher education.

Research from institutions such as Forbes, The Pew Research Center, and RAND, to name a few, also informed our findings and recommendations. 

Overview: teacher sentiments toward AI in education

Overall, educators reported feeling open to the ways AI can impact their own teaching practices, but see it as a support tool for teachers, rather than a central fixture in learning.   

An interesting note: when the educators we surveyed were given the opportunity to identify possible benefits of AI in education, almost all of their responses focused on teacher use.

Conversely, when given the opportunity to identify concerns around AI in education, most responses focused on student use. 

Concerns around student use of AI in the classroom were consistently reported. Educators also repeatedly called for AI training and professional development for both teachers and students to encourage future AI use.

How can AI be used in the classroom?

Our respondents reported that support with administrative tasks and personalized learning plans are two of the most desired uses for AI in their classrooms. 

Using AI to automate administrative tasks would free up time for targeted student instruction. Educators we surveyed identified administrative tasks like generating homework and assessments, adapting supplemental learning materials, and automating grades and feedback as areas they envision AI benefitting their practice. 

“…in helping with some of the administrative duties, I can focus more time on actual lesson planning and devoting time to each student.” 

When considering our research alongside a 2023 report conducted by RAND on teachers’ job satisfaction, it’s clear that using AI to support administrative tasks could also improve job satisfaction and retention rates among educators. 

Survey results found that most teachers feel overworked and undercompensated. “On average, teachers reported working 15 hours per week longer than required by contract. One out of every four hours that teachers worked per week, on average, was uncompensated.” In comparison to other working adults, teachers worked more hours – “53 hours to 46 hours.” 

While the report revealed that low pay is also a contributing factor to low satisfaction rates, “Pay increases alone–without improvements in teachers’ working hours or conditions—are unlikely to induce large shifts in teachers’ well-being or intentions to leave.” 

AI has the ability to improve teachers’ working hours by saving time on the completion of rote tasks like logging data, updating digital gradebooks, generating routine emails, and more.

“I’m interested to see how AI could be used to systematize certain aspects of school and teacher functions to save time and energy…”

Using AI to support personalized learning is another desired use for AI in the classroom, one that can specifically support students struggling with classroom content and/or with learning disabilities. 

AI can help teachers create diversified supplemental materials that address specific student needs. Doing so by hand, when many teachers have over 100 students, would be nearly impossible. Instead, teachers can use AI to adapt learning materials in more ways than just with or without modifications. 

Concerns about AI in the classroom

While most of our Teacher Council found the idea of AI use to be safe for themselves, AI use amongst their students garnered a different reaction. 

A strong majority of our Teacher Council does not encourage student use of AI (70%), nor would they put their students in front of an AI tutor (60%). Half of our respondents specified that a decrease in creativity and critical thinking skills is at the root of their concern. 

“I think the biggest issue is children relying on it and not using their own imagination. With essay writing I also think students can become more dependent on it than is helpful. The process of really learning to write an essay and the rules that govern the process can be lost with dependence on AI.”

Our educators also identified plagiarism, cheating, inaccurate information, and a lack of student and teacher digital literacy around AI as additional concerns. Overall, our Teacher Council believes that AI has the potential to benefit teachers over students because of the above concerns. 

Additional research that we conducted outside of our Teacher Council illuminated similar concerns regarding AI in education: misuse/cheating (80%), a decrease in critical thinking skills (63%), and dependency on technology (60%) were reported as the top three concerns.

“Apart from cheating and dependency, AI might disrupt organic learning and lessen the effectiveness of students’ ability to outsource information themselves. They might not know where to look for certain information as they get used to [being fed] from AI.”

Additionally, worries around privacy and data security, inaccuracy of AI tools, ethical implications, and equity and access issues were also listed. 

On a larger scale, a recent Forbes report, which surveyed more than 500 teachers, echoed our findings around top concerns for AI in education. Plagiarism in essays/work was listed as the top concern (65%), followed by reduced human interaction in learning (62%) and data privacy and security (42%).

According to a report conducted by RAND and The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), AI has the potential to exacerbate educational inequities, a concern our own surveys also unearthed. 

Not only are more “advanced settings” quicker to adopt AI, but “Suburban, majority-white, and low-poverty school districts are [also] currently about twice as likely to provide AI-use training for their teachers than urban or rural or high-poverty districts.” 

The Education Trust, an organization dedicated to “dismantling racial and economic barriers in the American education system,” highlights that access and training are not the only ways in which AI can deepen educational inequities. 

“AI tools could inadvertently reinforce existing biases and stereotypes, if not properly designed and trained,” writes Nathan Kriha on the organization’s blog. “AI tools learn from data, and if the data used to train them is biased or lacks diversity, the tools will perpetuate discrimination.”

The consistency at which all of the concerns above were reported, both in our own research and that of larger institutions, suggests that steps must be taken to address these issues before AI is adopted more widely by educators. 

Current use of AI in classrooms

According to our research, the most popular AI tools currently used by teachers are visual and adaptive learning platforms, as well as chatbots. Respectively, examples include Google Classroom, iReady, Khan Academy, ChatGPT, and Gemini (formerly Google Bard). 

“I use it [ChatGPT] for lesson planning, to create HW questions or give me ideas on more interactive lesson plans.”

According to RAND and CRPE, “AI-using teachers most often used AI tools and products to adapt instruction and generate materials. For example, 51 percent of AI-using teachers said that they used AI products and tools to support students with learning differences…” 

Despite the AI tools listed above, our reports showed that the number of teachers using AI is still low. When surveying our Backpack Interactive Teacher Council, only 20% reported using AI to support their teaching practice (i.e. lesson planning, grading, etc.). 

In our broader survey involving educators outside of our Teacher Council, only 37% currently use AI tools in their classroom. ChatGPT was the most frequently mentioned service. 

Similarly, in a survey conducted by RAND and CRPE, only 18% of teachers reported using AI in their teaching, and 15% had tried AI tools at least once, “but do not intend to regularly use them in their teaching.” 

This data suggests that while teachers are open to using AI in their classrooms in the future, many are not comfortable using it right now. 

Future use and teacher motivation

When investigating the likelihood of teachers using AI in the future, 70% of our respondents felt positive (53%) or very positive (17%) about AI use in their classrooms. 83% are likely (60%) or very likely (23%) to use AI in their classrooms in the future.

A report conducted by RAND and CRPE identified similar findings: “Nearly three-quarters (73%) of current AI-using teachers said that they expect to use AI products and tools more next school year (2024– 2025) than they do this school year (2023–2024).” 

According to Rand and CRPE, “Teachers report that some of the greatest barriers to their using AI in classrooms is lack of school or district guidance and professional development.” 

Similarly, Forbes found that “98% of teachers believe education on AI is necessary to increase understanding and for use to be ethical.” Our own research also identified a lack of support and training as the biggest reason that teachers are not using AI in their classrooms. 73% shared that more training and professional development would motivate them to use AI more in their classrooms. 

“I think that training on AI abilities would be helpful. I would like to know how AI can benefit me and what tools are at my disposal when using AI.”

This data speaks to an important next step. Comprehensive training and professional development about how to use AI is needed for teachers to feel confident using it in the future.

When children and adolescents use AI

According to a study by Current Biology, children’s ability to learn a variety of new information both simultaneously and quickly is greater than that of adults and is a result of the way in which GABA’s function in their brains. 

This might be why it is not uncommon to see children navigating new technology or apps at impressive rates. Children’s brains are like sponges, primed to take in new information and technology in a way that adults cannot. A child’s ability to adapt and learn quickly can open new doors when it comes to the possibilities of AI in education. 

However, the age of student AI users presents an additional layer to the concerns already voiced by educators. Users in grades K-12 and even many users in higher education are younger than 25 years old, and their brains, specifically their frontal lobes, are still developing. 

Students might not consider the long-term impacts AI could have on their learning, critical thinking skills, and creativity because of their developmental age. The frontal lobe, including the prefrontal cortex, “controls planning and reasoning…problem solving, judgment, and emotional expression.” This explains why it is actually developmentally appropriate for children and adolescents to over-rely on AI, rather than use AI to bolster their ever-developing critical thinking skills.

“My kids are too young and are not digitally literate enough to fully understand how to use it [AI] in school. They know how to use Siri & Alexa to feed them information but they take everything that it tells them at face value. They don’t know where the information is sourced from.” 

It is not uncommon for children and adolescents to overlook the reliability of the information fed to them. The developmental age of student AI users in education calls for an increase in teaching and training around how to use it appropriately, safely, and effectively.

As someone who works with teenagers, I can also testify to their perceived need and preference for someone or something to, let’s say, write their paper for them. Despite talking with students about the importance of a productive struggle in their learning process, I have watched them choose, time and time again, to use AI tools as a shortcut. 

Again, considering their age, this is developmentally appropriate and expected. However, as educators and product creators, it is our responsibility to keep this in mind when introducing or developing new AI tools for the classroom.

It is imperative to center the developmental age of student users by asking if incorporating AI encourages or replaces critical thinking and creativity.

Recommendations for edTech product owners

1. Automate administrative tasks

Design AI products to reduce the number of steps teachers need to take in order to complete time-consuming administrative tasks like logging data, drafting routine emails, parent outreach, formatting handouts, entering grades, and more.

2. Remove or offer locks for features that replace a productive struggle

Do-it-for-you features like “accept all changes” are overused by students and do not support the growth of their critical thinking skills. Limit or offer the ability to lock AI features that override the productive struggle, a strategy that strengthens learning. 

3. Create boundaries when using AI as a thought-partner

During COVID, we saw how an over-reliance on learning through technology, rather than learning in person, not only negatively impacted students’ academic growth, but also their social-emotional development. Use caution when employing AI as a thought-partner and consider finding ways students can use AI collaboratively.

4. Modify supplemental materials and assessments

Incorporate features that level supplemental materials and assessments created by teachers. 

5. Incorporate adaptive learning

Support struggling learners by offering targeted instruction at times when teachers cannot conduct 1:1 or small group interventions. Adaptive learning also supports meaningful independent work. 

6. Increase integration with pre-existing edTech products

Many school districts require teachers to use specific edTech platforms. Offer cross-product integration to increase the likelihood of educators utilizing AI features within your product.

7. Build in tutorials

Incorporate tutorials around the AI capabilities of your product. This can take the form of video walkthroughs, interactive simulations, or even a list of possible uses.

8. Incorporate tech support

Provide a variety of ways to receive technical support. Chatbots, live chats, and call centers offer educators multiple ways to receive support while navigating busy schedules. 

9. Offer professional development opportunities

Offer ways for educators to learn more about the AI capabilities of your product by providing training opportunities, whether virtual or in-person.

10. Build community pages for educators to discuss AI use

Create a space where educators can share success stories and tips around using AI products and features in their classroom.

Conclusion

As the role of AI in education continues to evolve, our research calls for care when designing edTech products that use artificial intelligence.

In particular, edTech products can support the growth of students’ creativity and critical thinking skills, especially if AI is integrated into the product.

While many educators are worried about how AI will impact the learning and development of their students, they recognize that it is here to stay.

Educators also feel positively about the ways in which AI can support their teaching practices, especially when it comes to creating personalized and supplemental learning materials and reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

To increase the likelihood of educators adopting AI tools in the future, training and professional development is needed for both teachers and students. 

Curious what users think of the features in your edTech products? Learn more about our in-house Teacher Council, or reach out to us about user experience research and testing!