AI and school, the gap between students and teachers is growing in Italy: the survey

The "Youth and Work" Observatory of Skuola.net and Gi Edu, which involved 2,500 high school students at the end of the last school year, reveals how 8 out of 10 children use chatbots in their studies, but only 1 in 6 have received official instructions or guidelines from the school on how to do so.

Among students, there are those who have integrated them into their daily study routine (21%), those (37%) who use them regularly but only for specific subjects, or (24%) only to deal with the most difficult situations. The survey highlights that children behave like already advanced users who almost always check the sources and correctness of the answers provided by the AI. The most common case of use, for 2 out of 3 students, is the one in which they question the AI ​​to get simpler explanations of complex concepts. This is then followed by the synthesis of texts to develop study aids, such as concept maps or podcasts to listen to (46%), the request for ideas to construct papers (24%) or study plans (10%) as well as exercise proposals in the form of quizzes and questions to check preparation (32%). However, there is no shortage of those who use chatbots as a shortcut: to correct texts developed independently (22%), to solve tasks for them (20%), to translate texts into a foreign language (17%).

Only 24% of students say they have improved grades since they can prepare with artificial intelligence, while all the others have seen their academic performance unchanged (25%) or even worsened (6%). Furthermore, as many as 73% answer affirmatively to the question "Are you afraid that by using AI too much you might lose the ability to do things without it?" and 18% confirm that this has already happened.

As regards the relationship of teachers with artificial intelligence tools, only 19% of students define teachers' attitude towards AI as predominantly open. It is no coincidence that only 7% said they had the opportunity to use it often in class and with different teachers, while it happened to all the others rarely (29%) if ever, with the aggravating circumstance that in 22% of cases the teachers, in addition to ignoring the teaching of these tools, strictly prohibited their use. The majority of teachers tolerate AI (49%) or pretend nothing happens (12%), and there is no shortage of those who repress and threaten sanctions to violators (20%). Meanwhile, in the absence of official rules (50%) or at most vague and confusing indications on how to use AI at school (28%), the students' request is unanimous: train teachers (38%), include it as a transversal discipline in all subjects (20%), give clear rules on how to use it (20%) or offer access to the most advanced paid models (7%).