The use of ChatGPT for academic purposes has always been a controversial topic among those in the academic field, from students to teachers to school administrators. Some claim that ChatGPT has helped students improve their academic performance and light a spark for learning in their hearts; while others believe that ChatGPT is nothing more than a tool students use to cheat on homework and tests and that it makes them lazier.
Candle Pen went straight to the people at the core of this issue—the students—to find out their views and perspectives on the subject, but before we go deeper into the topic, what really is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a large language-model artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in which when the user inputs a prompt, and receives a response from the chatbot. It can respond to questions and compose various written content such as but not limited to articles, essays, code, and emails.
In the academic setting, ChatGPT has been used greatly among students, not only to answer questions, but also to create essays and generate ideas in the snap of a finger. The concern primarily lies in the fact that this power can be used in academically dishonest ways, from cheating to unknowingly plagiarizing others' works to simply just copying and pasting everything that comes out of ChatGPT's metaphorical mouth.
Candle Pen has recently conducted a 10-question survey directed to the students of Cluster 4 (Grades 10-12) about their perspectives on the use of ChatGPT for academic purposes. Below are the questions and the data collected by the Publication Department Editors.
Cluster 4 as a whole is mostly undecided on whether ChatGPT positively affects their academic performance or not. Grade 10 is undecided as well on this matter, as shown by the majority of undecided respondents. The Grade 11 students agree that the chatbot positively affects their grades, whereas the Grade 12 students are also undecided on this topic. This is likely because while ChatGPT does provide a lot of help on schoolwork, while some information may not be entirely accurate; and overreliance on the chatbot may stunt a student’s learning growth, preventing them from accomplishing tasks that require stock knowledge, such as tests, which negatively affects academic performance.
The survey showed that students believe that ChatGPT is a useful tool to generate ideas for school projects. The collected data shows that all three batches have the same perspectives on this topic—is that they all agree. One of ChatGPT's unique traits is the ability to generate creative ideas, and it is clear that students appreciate this ability.
Cluster 4’s overall response to the statement “I frequently use ChatGPT to help me with my homework,” is one of the disagreements. The students of Grade 10 strongly disagree that they use ChatGPT often for help with schoolwork. Meanwhile, Grades 11 and 12 only disagree with the statement. However, this may not be entirely true as some students may not want to admit that they use ChatGPT often.
When asked if ChatGPT negatively affects academic integrity and honesty, the students of Cluster 4 are undecided. Grades 10, 11, and 12 all average with the same answer—undecided. It is possible that the majority would agree with this statement if lesser students use ChatGPT, as users would defend against this claim.
Our respondents agree that teachers are too strict on the use of ChatGPT to complete assignments. Grades 10 and 11 agree with this statement, whereas Grade 12—though borderline agree—is undecided as to whether or not teachers are too strict on the use of ChatGPT for homework. Teachers often regard ChatGPT as a form of cheating, and it seems that students would prefer if teachers would be more lenient with the use of ChatGPT.
"ChatGPT makes people want to learn more and be more hardworking” is a claim that Cluster 4 disagrees with. Each level in the cluster has an overall response of disagreement. This is likely because the students recognize that ChatGPT will only make students lazier as they rely on the chatbot to do their schoolwork, and that using the ChatGPT will only discourage learning as the chatbot itself can already provide all the information—albeit sometimes inaccurate and biased—they need.
Cluster 4 agrees that they are aware of the problems and issues inherent within ChatGPT, such as bias and inaccuracy. To break it down, Grades 10 and 11 agree with this statement, and Grade 12 strongly agrees that they are aware of the complications that come with using ChatGPT. There are chances in which Grade 12 possesses more knowledge compared to their younger levels, therefore observes more issues with the information from ChatGPT.
Exercising caution when copying information from ChatGPT is something that the students of Cluster 4 report that they do. All three levels agree with this, and data shows that there is little to no difference in their response average. This is largely due to the fact that Cluster Four is more aware of the issues that come with copying information from ChatGPT, and that a careless mistake could mean a lot.
The respondents agree that they critically read the information they obtain from ChatGPT and take care to avoid plagiarism. The students of Grade 10 have mixed responses, while Grades 11 and 12 agree that they are careful when using ChatGPT for information. This may be because Grades 11 and 12 have more at stake if they use incorrect or plagiarized information as compared to Grade 10.
When asked for their opinion on whether or not ChatGPT will bring positive benefits to the future of education from a student's perspective, a majority of students agree with the statement. Our data shows that Grade 10 is undecided on their opinion on this statement. On the other hand, Grades 11 and 12 agree that ChatGPT will be beneficial for the future of education. Grade 10 may still be testing the waters, thus being unsure on what impact ChatGPT will have; however the higher levels deem the chatbot to be beneficial based on first-hand experience.
To summarize the survey results, the average of Grade 10 responses for this survey falls under the undecided category. Meanwhile, the average of Grades 11 and 12 responses generally agree with the statements provided, although some are hovering around the line between indecision and agreement.
Cluster 4 does not exactly have a very firm stand on the statements provided in the survey. However, it is important to note that very few students disagree with the benefits offered by ChatGPT. We believe that as technology advances further, the impact that artificial intelligence will have on education will only increase, for better or for worse.
Story by Chesca Chua
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