Teachers use of AI - a BCS research study
The introduction of AI - and in particular generative AI – into the mainstream has affected every area of education. It is changing how pupils learn and complete work, how teachers assess and set tasks, and how exam boards and the regulator set guidelines to maintain standards and fairness.
Conducted in 2024, our BCS report shows there is great uncertainty around policies, best practice and guidance around how AI can and should be used across the education system.
BCS wanted to understand teachers’ attitudes towards AI, how they were using it in 2024, and how they perceive their own schools’ approach to challenges like plagiarism and assessment.
This research study was conducted between April – June 2024 in two parts. Firstly, 20 one hour long qualitative depth interviews with a range of secondary school teachers informed the development of a quantitative survey. In part two 5,298 secondary school teachers across the UK completed the survey covering 2600 schools (Reference 1).
The large sample size enabled us look at a range of demographic parameters to see if there were differences, identifying them across geography, private vs state schools, subjects, new vs experienced teachers, age and gender.
The findings revealed that:
- Most teachers (67%) got their introduction to AI via ChatGPT. However, it quickly gained a negative reputation, often seen a way to ‘cheat at homework’ and presenting challenges around fair assessment.
- Most teachers we asked (64%) are not using ChatGPT at all, and of those 19% said they were ‘not interested’ in using AI in future.
- Some 41% of teachers said their school did not have an agreed approach to AI, and 17% didn’t know what, if any, policy their school had agreed.
- 41% of teachers are regularly checking homework / coursework for plagiarism content from the web.
- The most common uses of AI by teachers were for creating quizzes and test materials – although some we surveyed used it to help them write communications to parents and reports.
- Several teachers who are using AI told us they were reluctant to discuss the use of AI with their department heads and headteachers.
- There are still very clear barriers to more widespread uptake of AI by secondary school teachers, ranging from lack of an AI policy in school to lack of formal training, to the negativity surrounding the launch of AI / Chat GPT.
