Amanda Huee-Ping WONG*, Swapna Haresh Teckwani, and Ivan Cherh Chiet LOW*
Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM), NUS
*phsilcc@nus.edu.sg, phswhpa@nus.edu.sg
Wong, A. H. P., Teckwani, S. H., & Low, I. C. C. (2023). Can ChatGPT be a teaching tool to promote learning and scientific inquiry skills? [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/can-chatgpt-be-a-teaching-tool-to-promote-learning-and-scientific-inquiry-skills/
SUB-THEME
AI and Education
KEYWORDS
ChatGPT, large language model, scientific inquiry, teaching tool, student learning
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Advancements in technology, especially in the artificial intelligence (AI) sphere, have brought about a noticeable paradigm shift in the educational landscape of the 21st century. Since its maiden release into the public domain in November 2022, ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) garnered more than one million subscribers within a week (Baidoo-Anu & Ansah, 2023). The introduction of large language model (LLM) tools, such as ChatGPT, into the education field has resulted in the use of information and communication technologies as a tool for improving teaching and learning (Opara, 2023). Educators have the opportunity to incorporate ChatGPT as part of a diversified teaching tool to achieve a more interesting and innovative teaching and learning experience (Yu, 2023). Along similar lines, we incorporated ChatGPT as a learning tool in the tutorial of a scientific inquiry course in an attempt to promote student learning and scientific inquiry skills. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of a ChatGPT-based tutorial with conventional tutorials in promoting the achievement of learning outcomes (LO) and scientific inquiry.
Methods: In the tutorial sessions of HSI2002 “Inquiry into Current Sporting Beliefs and Practices”, students were tasked with providing evidence-based evaluation and critiques of selected sporting issues and practices. In one of the three tutorials, ChatGPT was incorporated as a learning tool whereby students were tasked to perform their inquiry regarding ChatGPT’s response to specific prompts related to the course content. On the other hand, students were required to provide their critique in the other tutorials based on pre-reading materials in the form of journal articles. Students were required to submit an assignment report after each tutorial, which was used in this study analysis. Specifically, student assignments were analysed using two sets of rubrics designed to assess (1) the achievement of LO at the different level of the Bloom’s taxonomy, and (2) scientific inquiry skills (Seeratan et al. 2020). One-way ANOVA was used to determine statistical significance of scores among the three tutorials.
Results: Assignments from 10 out of 40 students were scored to date. Preliminary analysis revealed that the overall scores for each tutorial (with and without ChatGPT) were comparable (p = 0.245, Figure 1).
Mean scores for the student responses according to each rubric factor, namely the three desired learning outcomes according to Bloom’s taxonomy level (Understand, Analyse, and Evaluate) and scientific inquiry were comparable across the different tutorials (Table 1). Interestingly, we observed a trend that scientific inquiry skills were enhanced in the ChatGPT-based tutorial (p = 0.083). However, further analysis of the remaining 30 students needs to be conducted to substantiate this observation.
Conclusion: This study showcases another approach to meaningfully harness AI technology, specifically ChatGPT, to support student learning in a scientific inquiry course. Our preliminary data revealed that the tutorial leveraging on ChatGPT as a teaching tool was comparable to conventional case-based tutorials in promoting learning outcomes and scientific inquiry skills. Future completion of our data analysis may reveal further interesting insights, with the potential of this novel strategy surpassing traditional approaches of teaching and learning. As learners are faced with ever-evolving technologies, integrating generative AI tools in the classroom serves as a platform to teach students how to use this technology constructively and safely, thus preparing them to thrive in an AI-dominated work environment upon graduation.
REFERENCES
Yu, H. (2023). Reflection on whether ChatGPT should be banned by academia from the perspective of education and teaching. Front. Psychol. 14, 1181712. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1181712
Baidoo-Anu, D., & Ansah, L. (2023). Education in the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI): Understanding the potential benefits of ChatGPT in promoting teaching and learning. Social Science Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4337484
Opara, E. C. (2023). ChatGPT for teaching, learning and research: Prospects and challenges. Global Academic Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(2), 33-40. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4375470
Seeratan, K. L., McElhaney, K. W., Mislevy, J., McGhee, R., Jr, Conger, D., & Long, M. C. (2020). Measuring students’ ability to engage in scientific inquiry: A new instrument to assess data analysis, explanation, and argumentation. Educational Assessment, 25(2), 112–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627197.2020.1756253