Teaching with AI

Teaching with AI | OpenAI

August 31, 2023

Teaching with AI

We’re releasing a guide for teachers using ChatGPT in their classroom—including suggested prompts, an explanation of how ChatGPT works and its limitations, the efficacy of AI detectors, and bias.

Find additional resources in our new FAQ

Loading…

Share

We’re sharing a few stories of how educators are using ChatGPT to accelerate student learning and some prompts to help educators get started with the tool. In addition to the examples below, our new FAQ⁠ contains additional resources from leading education organizations on how to teach with and about AI, examples of new AI-powered education tools, and answers to frequently asked questions from educators about things like how ChatGPT works, its limitations, the efficacy of AI detectors, and bias.

How teachers are using ChatGPT

Role playing challenging conversations

Dr. Helen Crompton, Professor of Instructional Technology at Old Dominion University, encourages her education graduate students to use ChatGPT as a stand-in for a particular persona—like a debate partner who will point out weaknesses in their arguments, a recruiter who’s interviewing them for a job, or a new boss who might deliver feedback in a specific way. She says exploring information in a conversational setting helps students understand their material with added nuance and new perspective.

Building quizzes, tests, and lesson plans from curriculum materials

Fran Bellas, a professor at Universidade da Coruña in Spain, recommends teachers use ChatGPT as an assistant in crafting quizzes, exams and lesson plans for classes. He says to first share the curriculum to ChatGPT and then ask for things like fresh quiz and lesson plan ideas that use modern or culturally relevant examples. Bellas also turns to ChatGPT to help teachers make sure questions they write themselves are inclusive and accessible for the students’ learning level. “If you go to ChatGPT and ask it to create 5 question exams about electric circuits, the results are very fresh. You can take these ideas and make them your own.”

Reducing friction for non-English speakers

Dr. Anthony Kaziboni, the Head of Research at the University of Johannesburg, teaches students who mostly don’t speak English outside of the classroom. Kaziboni believes that command of English is a tremendous advantage in the academic world, and that misunderstandings of even small details of English grammar can hold back students from recognition and opportunity. He encourages his students to use ChatGPT for translation assistance, to improve their English writing, and to practice conversation.

Teaching students about critical thinking

Geetha Venugopal, a high school computer science teacher at the American International School in Chennai, India, likens teaching students about AI tools to teaching students how to use the internet responsibly. In her classroom, she advises students to remember that the answers that ChatGPT gives may not be credible and accurate all the time, and to think critically about whether they should trust the answer, and then confirm the information through other primary resources. The goal is to help them “understand the importance of constantly working on their original critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills.”

Example prompts to get you started

Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick, both at Wharton Interactive, have been trying techniques like those above for much of the last year. These are some prompts they developed for use with GPT‑4.A Simply copy and paste the prompts below into ChatGPT to test drive them.

As you employ these prompts, it’s important to remember a few things:

• The model may not always produce correct information. They are only a starting point; you are the expert and are in charge of the material.
• You know your class the best and can decide after reviewing the output from the model.

These prompts are only suggestions. Feel free to change any prompts and tell the AI what you want to see.

A. Come up with lesson plans

You are a friendly and helpful instructional coach helping teachers plan a lesson.

First introduce yourself and ask the teacher what topic they want to teach and the grade level of their students. Wait for the teacher to respond. Do not move on until the teacher responds.

Next ask the teacher if students have existing knowledge about the topic or if this in an entirely new topic. If students have existing knowledge about the topic ask the teacher to briefly explain what they think students know about it. Wait for the teacher to respond. Do not respond for the teacher.

Then ask the teacher what their learning goal is for the lesson; that is what would they like students to understand or be able to do after the lesson. Wait for a response.

Given all of this information, create a customized lesson plan that includes a variety of teaching techniques and modalities including direct instruction, checking for understanding (including gathering evidence of understanding from a wide sampling of students), discussion, an engaging in-class activity, and an assignment. Explain why you are specifically choosing each.

Ask the teacher if they would like to change anything or if they are aware of any misconceptions about the topic that students might encounter. Wait for a response.

If the teacher wants to change anything or if they list any misconceptions, work with the teacher to change the lesson and tackle misconceptions.

Then ask the teacher if they would like any advice about how to make sure the learning goal is achieved. Wait for a response.

If the teacher is happy with the lesson, tell the teacher they can come back to this prompt and touch base with you again and let you know how the lesson went.

B. Create effective explanations, examples, analogies

You are a friendly and helpful instructional designer who helps teachers develop effective explanations, analogies and examples in a straightforward way. Make sure your explanation is as simple as possible without sacrificing accuracy or detail.  First introduce yourself to the teacher and ask these questions. Always wait for the teacher to respond before moving on. Ask just one question at a time.

1. Tell me the learning level of your students (grade level, college, or professional). 2. What topic or concept do you want to explain? 3. `How does this particular concept or topic fit…