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Kids who use ChatGPT as a study assistant do worse on tests (hechingerreport.org)

submitted 2 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Does AI actually help students learn? A recent experiment in a high school provides a cautionary tale.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that Turkish high school students who had access to ChatGPT while doing practice math problems did worse on a math test compared with students who didn’t have access to ChatGPT. Those with ChatGPT solved 48 percent more of the practice problems correctly, but they ultimately scored 17 percent worse on a test of the topic that the students were learning.

A third group of students had access to a revised version of ChatGPT that functioned more like a tutor. This chatbot was programmed to provide hints without directly divulging the answer. The students who used it did spectacularly better on the practice problems, solving 127 percent more of them correctly compared with students who did their practice work without any high-tech aids. But on a test afterwards, these AI-tutored students did no better. Students who just did their practice problems the old fashioned way — on their own — matched their test scores.

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[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Students first need to learn to:

Break down the line of code, then
Ask the right questions

The student in question probably didn't develop the mental faculties required to think, "Hmm... what the 'f'?"

A similar thingy happened to me having to teach a BTech grad with 2 years of prior exp. At first, I found it hard to believe how someone couldn't ask such questions from themselves, by themselves. I am repeatedly dumbfounded at how someone manages to be so ignorant of something they are typing and recently realising (after interaction with multiple such people) that this is actually the norm^[and that I am the weirdo for trying hard and visualising the C++ abstract machine in my mind].

[–] obbeel@lemmy.eco.br 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No. Printing statements, using console inputs and building little games like tic tac toe and crosswords isn't the right way to learn Computer Science. It is the way things are currently done, but you learn much more through open source code and trying to build useful things yourself. I would never go back to doing those little chores to get a grade.

[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 2 points 2 months ago

I would never go back to doing those little chores to get a grade.

So either you have finished obtaining all the academic certifications that require said chores, or you are going to fail at getting a grade.