School students who use AI chatbots score lower in OECD science test – Capital Brief

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Briefing
Short circut
The news: Students who use generative AI for specific tasks score lower in science than those who don’t, according to an OECD report.
Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s director for education and skills, said outcomes depended on exactly how generative AI was used, but the bottom line was simple.
Students who never use AI outperformed even occasional users in the PISA science test, while daily users scored the lowest.
The nuance is that students who frequently used AI to “help them learn” scored almost as highly as those who never used it.
Schleicher said technology can undermine students’ development if it “short-circuits the productive struggle of learning”.
The lesson for policymakers, he said, was that digital literacy does not begin with using devices and technology, but with helping students develop the ability to “concentrate, interpret, synthesise and reason”.
The OECD said the share of students who rush through a text and give quick but incorrect answers had almost doubled since 2018.
Half of Australian students reported using AI at least weekly, above the OECD average of 45.5%. Their PISA scores were also above average, despite declines in reading and mathematics.
What was said: “Technology can be a powerful amplifier of learning, but only if students are equipped with the cognitive and metacognitive tools to use it wisely,” Schleicher said.
The source: OECD
By Dan Brunskill
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