Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT has educational benefits for both students and educators. Teachers have used ChatGPT to create their lesson plans, so they can focus on the information they will teach, overall improving the student’s educational experience and reducing stress on the teacher. I’ve had a substitute professor use ChatGPT to make the lesson plan, which he admitted was very efficient and provided him with ideas to make the lesson more interactive.
Overall, teachers should be the most significant activists of ChatGPT. It is a teacher’s job to prepare his students for the real world, and the truth is that ChatGPT is the future. It will be used for simple tasks such as writing emails, but it can also be a revolutionizing tool for research and writing. ChatGPT’s increasing influence in the foreseeable future is still ongoing, so teachers must teach their students to adapt instead of rejecting change.
ChatGPT’s benefits on autodidactic learning
Autodidactic learning is self-directed learning where the individual has a high degree of self-motivation and passion for learning independently. School might be guided learning for the most part, but activities and lesson plans nourish autodidactism involving ChatGPT. Autodidactic experiences can be created for students through ChatGPT since it offers an interactive learning assistant tailored to their learning style. Therefore, by including independent learning assignments where ChatGPT is allowed as a resource, it can encourage the independence of autodidactic learners and the development of autodidactic learning skills. Autodidactic experiences can enhance motivation and students’ performance. Additionally, ChatGPT provides increased accessibility to resources and real-time feedback. Overall, the incorporation of ChatGPT in the educational curriculum positively impacts autodidactic learning.
Disproving the “use it or lose it” situation
The calculator revolutionized the teaching of math. It has been proven that students who can use a calculator during the math learning process perform better than those who are not. It was hypothesized that non-calculator students would perform better because their math skills and advanced math learning efficiency would be superior since they do everything by hand without assistance. The calculator students not only had a tool to calculate simple equations but also had more headspace to better focus on more advanced math concepts. Having the calculator as a tool reinforced their grasp of the fundamental math processes.
Incorporating the calculator in math learning disproved the “use it or lose it” situation. If “use it or lose it” applied to the situation, the calculator students would have performed worse than the non-calculator students since their fundamental math skills would have deteriorated the more they relied on calculators. However, this did not happen. By understanding the fundamental processes, like simple addition or division, the calculator students can more efficiently advance math concepts and reinforce their knowledge of fundamental math processes.
ChatGPT’s effect on critical thinking
Critical thinking is analyzing and interpreting information to make a calculated judgment. Related skills involve questioning and evaluation. The teaching of critical thinking skills is the backbone of the education system. Everything students are taught is in the hope of developing these skills because they are necessary to be rational adults and contributing members of society. Critical thinking skills are required in everyday situations with other people or work-related tasks.
Just like the introduction of the calculator to math learning did not deteriorate fundamental math skills, the introduction of ChatGPT to the educational curriculum will not deteriorate fundamental critical thinking skills. As long as fundamental critical thinking skills are taught to students beforehand, introducing ChatGPT could reinforce these skills just like the calculator reinforced fundamental math skills. It can be argued that ChatGPT improves critical thinking skills. Analyzing sources and information is a crucial critical thinking skill, and the ability to research plays a crucial part in this skill. ChatGPT can improve your ability to research by providing valuable information tailored to your argument, like AI medical diagnostic tools provide valuable information to help make a more accurate diagnosis. Having ChatGPT as a research tool will improve students’ research skills, overall improving critical thinking. Therefore, ChatGPT can reinforce students’ critical thinking, so the “use it or lose it” situation does not apply.
