In the new semester, will ChatGPT become a "magic tool" for writing essays? We talked to several Chinese teachers

The new semester is here. Will ChatGPT become a "magic tool" for essay writing? Will it interfere with the normal Chinese education and teaching in primary and secondary schools? We talked to several Chinese teachers.

Written by reporter Zhao Tianyu

Recently, ChatGPT has become popular all over the world!

Topics such as "ChatGPT has over 100 million active users in 2 months", "ChatGPT can be used to write papers", and "ChatGPT will make programmers unemployed" have been on the Weibo hot search list. With the official opening of primary and secondary schools in Beijing on February 13, topics related to the intersection of ChatGPT and primary and secondary school education have begun to attract attention and discussion.

▲ChatGPT may pose challenges to many industries (Image source: Bernad Marr)

After testing, it was found that ChatGPT can indeed write simple essays, and can also handle a variety of styles such as expository essays, narrative essays, and argumentative essays. In this way, can ChatGPT become a "magic tool" for essay writing? Will it interfere with the normal Chinese education and teaching in primary and secondary schools?

So, we asked ChatGPT to actually "create" a few essays and "chat" with several Chinese teachers in primary and secondary schools in Beijing.

I asked ChatGPT if he could write an essay, and I quickly got a positive response: "Yes, I can help you write an essay. I am a well-trained language model that can generate text according to your requirements."

ChatGPT was asked to write a simple explanatory essay on the topic of roses, and AI "submitted" the answer in just over ten seconds. The essay looked standard in terms of text, structure, and logic.

Next, the difficulty increased. ChatGPT was asked to write a narrative essay titled "The First Day of My First Year in Junior High School". This time it took a little longer, but the essay was basically smooth. However, it was found that many sentences, such as "I made many friends with my classmates" and "After the end of this day", were obviously incorrect.

Finally, we tried to let ChatGPT complete the 2022 Beijing High School Entrance Examination essay topics "I Created a New Record" and "That Sunday". The essays this time were not very satisfactory, especially the one "I Created a New Record". AI seemed unable to portray specific things and scenes well. The content was empty and had no literary talent, and even had a feeling of "talking to oneself".

How many points would such an essay get if it were graded according to the standard of the junior high school entrance examination (40 points out of 40)? Zhou Qun, a senior Chinese teacher at Beijing Jingshan School and a special Chinese teacher in Beijing, believes that judging from this randomly selected essay, the text is only compliant and the theme is clear. However, the text and sentences cannot withstand scrutiny and cannot meet the requirements of junior high school essays. A score of 26-28 points is more appropriate.

Hao Jie, a senior Chinese teacher at the Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University, believes that the level of both essays is very average. The first one is full of empty clichés, while the second one is a diary with little literary talent. Only the organization of some of the language is "noteworthy". Under the premise that the marking standards are very loose, it can only get 30-35 points.

Shao Xiaoxing, a Chinese teacher at Beijing No. 161 Middle School Huilongguan School, felt the same way. She thought the first essay was "a little empty, not focused enough on the theme, and almost no emotion was expressed." The second essay "had similar content in each paragraph and lacked novelty," and could only be given 30-35 points.

▲Data map (Source: Xinhuanet)

In addition to scoring, what do teachers think of AI tools like ChatGPT?

The impact has not yet occurred

Teachers should strengthen positive guidance

(Photo source: Beijing Jingshan School)

Zhou Qun (Senior Chinese teacher at Beijing Jingshan School, Beijing Special Chinese Teacher)

Talking about the impact of ChatGPT on students, Zhou Qun said that this event itself is very representative in the development of artificial intelligence, and it also indicates the future direction of technology development, which can allow students to have some speculative discussions along this topic. However, in terms of the impact on education and teaching, she believes that it has not yet appeared.

"An excellent Chinese teacher is very sensitive to students' learning situation. If a student uses ChatGPT to complete an essay with a very different style and level, I believe the teacher will be able to observe the problem in the primary and secondary school stage."

She emphasized that writing is a skill and teachers should guide students to enjoy the joy of expression. Students should not give up their right to express themselves because of the development of artificial intelligence. Teachers should strengthen positive guidance and let students understand the pros and cons, so as to eliminate the influence from the root.

AI is a double-edged sword

Pay special attention to students with weak foundation

(Photo source: The Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University)

Hao Jie (Senior Chinese teacher at the Middle School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University)

Teacher Hao Jie believes that regardless of whether students use ChatGPT or not, such AI tools will have an impact on Chinese teaching, especially composition training, because they interfere with students' independent thinking ability.

Hao Jie explained that the key to writing good essays for middle school students is to observe more, think more, and write more. From conception to writing to completion, the process is often more important than the result, and it requires long-term persistence. However, the emergence of AI tools has infinitely shortened this process and even helped students to "cash out" directly.

However, she also pointed out that the impact of ChatGPT cannot be generalized. For students with solid basic knowledge and strong learning ability, AI tools can play a finishing touch, helping them to expand their thinking and even accumulate materials better.

"But for students with weak foundations and lack of proactive learning ability, the emergence of this tool is 'devastating' and they will be exposed once they enter the exam room." She suggested that similar tools should be "managed in layers", especially to avoid excessive use by students with poor foundations.

Students don’t have much contact with

No worries about affecting teaching within 10 years

(Photo source: Beijing No. 161 Middle School Huilongguan School)

Shao Xiaoxing (Chinese teacher at Beijing No. 161 Middle School Huilongguan School)

Shao Xiaoxing said that although ChatGPT has become very popular in society, students are relatively less exposed to it. For example, in a class of 30 people, only about 2-3 boys know about it, and the proportion of those who have mastered it is even smaller.

Combining the actual teaching situation, Shao Xiaoxing said that for students to write exam essays, there are actually many so-called substitutes, which have existed for a long time. For example, various teaching materials and deliberately memorized material fragments can be used directly in the examination room. So there are many ways to cope with exams, and AI is just one of them.

"Perhaps artificial intelligence will have some impact on other industries, but for education, especially literary writing teaching, repetitive, stereotyped, and standardized works will never be better than creative words from the heart." Therefore, Shao Xiaoxing is not worried that ChatGPT will interfere with the quality of teaching. At least for the subject of Chinese, there will be no problem within 10 years. If we look at it in the longer term, such as 20 or 30 years, the result is hard to say, of course, this is another assumption.

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