Half Of Secondary School Teachers Believe That Benefits Of Generative AI In Education Outweigh Risks: Report

New generative AI tools are disrupting the education sector and posing both challenges and opportunities for students and teachers. Capgemini Research Institute’s new report, ‘Future ready education: Empowering secondary school students with digital skills’, also found that students aged 16-18 feel much less confident about whether their digital skills make them workforce-ready than their teachers. This is especially true for foundational skills in the areas of digital communication and data literacy. 

Education systems around the world are already making moves to either accommodate or exclude generative AI tools such as ChatGPT from students’ day-to-day activities. Nearly half (48 per cent) of secondary school teachers, for example, report that their schools have either blocked or restricted the tools’ use in one form or another. Other “early adopters” have been less restrictive in their approach with 19 per cent saying that such tools have been allowed for specific use-cases, and 18 per cent noting that they are still evaluating it for its applicability and usefulness in the classroom. Overall, over half (56 per cent) of secondary school teachers agreed that curriculums and assessments needed to be adapted to account for student use of AI-generated content, and a similar proportion (52 per cent) believe AI tools will change the teaching profession for the better. 

Balancing the risks with the benefits 

While many can see the potential of generative AI tools, 78 per cent of secondary school teachers globally still share concerns about the negative impact of generative AI tools on student learning outcomes, including the perception that the value of writing as a skill will be diminished (66 per cent) and that the tool will limit student creativity (66 per cent).  

Despite these concerns, half of secondary school teachers globally say that the potential of generative AI as an educational tool outweighs the risks. Of the perceived benefits that AI tools could bring, key use cases highlighted by teachers include using it to teach how to interact with and understand AI models (60 per cent), to aid critical thinking exercises (56 per cent), and as a tool to help suggest edits to students’ work (52 per cent), among others.  

The sentiment towards generative AI varies significantly across different geographies: teachers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland recognise the importance and potential of generative AI, much more than Singapore, Japan or France.  

Equipping students with key skills for the future 

Almost two thirds (64 per cent) of secondary school teachers are convinced of the importance to develop students’ digital skills to make them job-ready and the vast majority (82 per cent) agree that compulsory education in digital skills would be beneficial to students. However, the report highlighted a gap in confidence between adults and teenagers: 70 per cent of teachers and 64 per cent of parents believe that students have the necessary skills to be successful in today’s workforce, while 55 per cent of students aged 16-18 agree. The research also finds that there is a significant gap in confidence between teachers in large cities (83 per cent) and in rural areas (40 per cent), and that urban 16-18 years old girls feel nearly twice more confident than in rural areas. Finally, teachers in rural areas are less likely to believe that digital literacy is a priority for their school than their peers in suburban and urban areas1.  

As per the research, while 72 per cent of students aged 16–18 feel confident about their basic digital literacy2, less than half (47 per cent) feel the same way about digital communication and data literacy3 – attributes which are considered crucial for success in the modern workplace. The report highlights that instilling confidence is key to empowering students to correctly identify fact from misinformation online. While the majority (80 per cent) of students say they are confident in finding information online, fewer know which online sources to trust (66 per cent) and even less can decipher fact versus opinion online (61 per cent).