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Tips from the Educator’s Playbook

5 Ways
Teachers can integrate ChatGPT into the classroom

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the question on everyone’s mind has been, “How will this change our world?”
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hatGPT is one of the most advanced machine learning and language processing models. It can read and understand text in context and respond in a human-like way—from writing essays to solving problem sets—leading to the question on everyone’s mind: How will this change education?

But education is about more than just the correct answers or perfect essays, says Betty Chandy, GED’05, GRD’13, director of online learning for Catalyst, Penn GSE’s center for innovation. Education is acquiring knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. It is the process that matters more than the product. “Calculators did not make math redundant, and the internet did not make schools obsolete,” she said. “AI will create opportunities that were unimaginable a year ago.”

Chandy, who runs the Virtual Online Teaching (VOLT) and the Experiences in Applied Computational Thinking (EXACT) certificate programs at Penn GSE, started her career as a high school teacher and instructional coach, then moved into research exploring the impact of professional development on teachers’ pedagogical practices. Her research interests include the design of learning environments, online learning, technology in classrooms, and teacher development. Below are five of Chandy’s ideas for integrating ChatGPT into the classroom:

Portrait headshot photograph of Betty Chandy (GED’05, GRD’13, director of online learning for Catalyst, Penn GSE’s center for innovation) smiling in a black blouse containing white diamond shaped pattern style symbols all over and bronze colored shiny metallic earrings
Betty Chandy
1.

Use ChatGPT as a starting point.

Have students generate answers on ChatGPT and then work from there. AI-generated essays are sometimes surface-level analyses and can be boring or redundant. Teachers can use this draft to work with the class to think through how they can improve the essay and build in deeper analysis.
Digital illustrative artwork representation of an individual's arms and hands hovering over the keyboard area of a laptop as the screen display shows an open essay document file and next to the file icon is a chat bubble symbol which contains an artificial intelligence (AI) robot head icon inside the chat bubble
2.

Ask ChatGPT to generate articles on topics at your students’ reading level.

You can also give it your existing articles and ask it to rephrase them, say, to a second-grade or 12th-grade reading level.
3.

Ask ChatGPT to suggest activities.

The chatbot can generate entire lesson plans if you provide it with the standards and grade level. If you don’t like what it gives you, you can prompt it to regenerate another one, this time with games or activities built into it. Go ahead, play with different prompts and have fun with it.
Digital illustrative artwork representation of an open book with its pages flipped in motion and a pencil nearby below the open book while a yellow light bulb symbol floats in the air above those pages plus a chat bubble symbol containing an artificial intelligence (AI) robot head icon inside the chat bubble floats to the right above/next to the yellow light bulb icon
4.

Focus on the process instead of the final product.

Using tools like Google Docs that track the development and evolution of the student product can help you be sure that it was not a copy/paste from ChatGPT.
5.

Provide project-based learning scenarios.

These are student-driven scenarios driven by sustained inquiry and anchored in local, authentic, real-world contexts. (e.g., Why does my neighborhood have such high rates of asthma? Or: What is the most equitable way to elect a government?) Because answers to these sorts of questions don’t already exist, ChatGPT can’t be misused. Students can only use this technology to inform their work, just like they use the internet now, but would need to think through the ideas and extrapolate to their own contexts.

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These tips are adapted from The Educator’s Playbook, a Penn GSE newsletter that distills faculty research into useful advice for educators and parents. Visit penng.se/playbook to sign up.
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Where the technology goes, students will follow. How will it change the way we teach and learn? Well, that’s a question we’ll probably need more than a just a machine to answer.
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