Title: How Can We Use Generative AI to Support and Engage Students?
Abstract: Generative AI chatbots are now widely available and increasing numbers of students use them. Despite hyperbolic claims, there is little objective evidence about the efficacy of such systems for teaching and learning. Early findings suggest that the use of AI chatbots without guidance or guardrails negatively affects student learning. Using what evidence we do have, together with our current understanding of how people learn, and given the overarching assumption that learning requires effort and engagement which can easily be bypassed using AI, we have proposed a set of guidelines for the use of AI for teaching and learning. 1) Design AI teaching and learning systems to support self-regulated learning, 2) Develop a course structure and culture that rewards the learning journey, 3) Take advantages of the affordances of AI to extend what students know and can do, and 4) Develop clear and equitable policies for the use of AI. We can use these principles to help students to understand how they learn, what they can do with their knowledge, and how to solve complex problems that have societal impact and economic value.
Short Biography
Melanie Cooper is the Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education and Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University. She earned her B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Manchester, England. Her research includes the development and assessment of STEM curricula based on theories of learning and evidence about how people learn, the impact on student learning, and how students perceive these transformed curricula. She has worked to cross disciplinary boundaries to develop coherent approaches to STEM teaching and learning by leading a team of DBER researchers to develop a coherent approach to gateway STEM courses in higher education. She is an elected Member of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was a member of the leadership team for the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and has served on the National Academy of Sciences Board on Science Education (BOSE) and as an author on several consensus reports for the National Academy of Sciences. She has received a number of awards for excellence in teaching and for her contributions to research.
Web: https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-members/cooper-melanie.aspx