teachers can lessen the allure of taking shortcuts by solving for these conditions — figuring out, for instance, how to intrinsically motivate students to study by helping them connect with the material for its own sake. They can also help students see how an assignment will help them succeed in a future career. And they can design courses that prioritize deeper learning and competence. To alleviate testing pressure, teachers can make assignments more low-stakes and break them up into smaller pieces. They can also give students more opportunities in the classroom to practice the skills and review the knowledge being tested. And teachers should talk openly about academic honesty and the ethics of cheating. “I’ve found in my own teaching that if you approach your assignments in that way, then you don’t always have to be the police,” he said. Students are “more incentivized, just by the system, to not cheat.” With writing, teachers can ask students to submit smaller “checkpoint” assignments, such as outlines and handwritten notes and drafts that classmates can review and comment on. They can also rely more on oral exams and handwritten blue book assignments.
The share of teens who say they use ChatGPT for their schoolwork has risen to 26%, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. That’s up from 13% in 2023. Still, most teens (73%) have not used the chatbot in this way. Teens’ use of ChatGPT for schoolwork increased across demographic groups. Black and Hispanic teens (31% each) are more likely than White teens (22%) to say they have used ChatGPT for their schoolwork. In 2023, similar shares of White (11%), Black (13%) and Hispanic teens (11%) said they used the chatbot for schoolwork.Just over half of teens say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to research new topics (54%). Only 9% say it is not acceptable to use it for this. Far fewer support using the chatbot to do math or write essays: 29% of teens say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while 28% say it’s not acceptable. 18% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to write essays, and 42% say it’s not acceptable. Another 15% to 21% of teens are unsure whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks.
The Stanford researchers concluded that cheating was common before AI — and it remains so. It is the nature of cheating that is evolving.
“This year’s data is showing a decline in copying off a peer and it seems there is more use of AI instead,” said Lee, an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
In these surveys, about 3 in 4 students reported behaviors in the last month that qualify as cheating, figures similar to what was reported prior to AI.
A 13-year-old Florida student was arrested after typing “how to kill my friend in the middle of class” into ChatGPT on a school device, reports Futurism. The AI-powered monitoring tool Gaggle immediately flagged the message, alerting authorities who detained the boy at Southwestern Middle School in Deland. Though the teen claimed he was “just trolling,” officials stressed the seriousness of the act, sparking debate over AI surveillance in schools.
