The education watchdog has called for a national framework to navigate artificial intelligence in schools, with a recent report finding more than half of teachers think it’s a barrier for students learning to think for themselves.
The Education Review Office report outlined how New Zealand schools and teachers were engaging with AI and called for an urgent national framework.
“There is an urgent need for a more coherent system-wide approach to help schools use AI safely, consistently, and effectively, to enhance teaching and learning.”
Nearly 60% of teachers said AI is having a negative impact on students' critical thinking.
Students and teachers told the Education Review Office that AI also had positive impacts when it was used as a tool for problem solving and checking work instead of doing the work for them.
1News spoke to several Year 11 students at Rongotai College in Wellington who said they were using AI tools in the classroom more and more.
“Since AI, it’s made me rely on it more, so I haven't had the chance to think for myself,” one said.
“Whenever I am trying to think of questions about everyday life, school, schoolwork, I’ve become really dependent on asking ChatGPT for help,” another said.
Teacher Sonya McAteer said students can use AI for some exercises.
“They are allowed to use AI to get definitions the same way they can use a normal dictionary or an online dictionary. Beyond that, we will then question what they tell us their definition is and do you agree with that? Where do you think AI got that from?” she said.
McAteer said up to two hours on top of marking was spent checking assessments for AI plagiarism.
“It’s something that the students are naturally moving towards, partly to save themselves time, very few of them intentionally use it to cheat."
Some departments at the school allow AI for research purposes, others like the English department make students sign a waiver saying they must not use AI.
Thinking becomes 'much more homogenised' – neuroscientist
Adam Green, a leading neuroscientist at Georgetown University in Washington DC, told 1News there was strong evidence AI limits creativity.
“When we come up with ideas without AI, we travel through the history of our own lives. So, we build these semantic networks in our brains,” he said.
He said everyone’s unique experiences make up our semantic networks.
“When we generate ideas with AI, instead of traveling through our own life story, our own semantic networks, we're traveling through this massively shared common network of ideas and if we let those ideas replace our own, then that journey becomes much more homogenised,” he added.
AUT psychotherapist and AI ethics advisor Brigitte Viljoen said the government need to set stricter AI policies for schools.
“The Governments taken a soft touch approach to AI regulation in New Zealand, more guidelines than actual regulation, and this is concerning because it’s not providing guardrails, giving transparency, and also accountability to AI companies,” she said.
In a statement to 1News, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she welcomed the report.
“This report gives the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority an evidence-based pathway for updating AI guidance and a clear direction on what areas need further work.
She said the Ministry of Education have advised they broadly accept the recommendations to strengthen responsible use of AI.
“AI must not get in the way of students developing and demonstrating their own knowledge and skills,” she added.
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