Researchers have studied the use of AI in classrooms: "Technology cannot think for you"

“We found AI use in 18 per cent of the lessons we observed,” says researcher Annie Karoline Elgen at the University of Oslo.

Together with colleagues Katherina Dodou and Lisbeth M. Brevik, she analysed video recordings of 75 Norwegian and English lessons from 20 classrooms as part of the EDUCATE research project.

Healthy scepticism

The teachers showed a healthy scepticism towards the technology. One teacher explained to the students that AI can provide both correct and incorrect information. They emphasised the importance of students knowing enough about a topic to be able to evaluate the answers they receive from AI.

Another teacher warned that AI “is not a critical thing. It's not a thinking thing. It's artificial intelligence, so it's not going to be critical.”

“It was encouraging to see how several teachers made the students aware of the need to think critically about AI,” says Katherina Dodou.

The findings show that knowledge of how AI works is essential for using it appropriately.

How the teachers used AI

In a 10th grade English class, students were asked to write a film script. They were encouraged to feed their script into an AI model to receive feedback.

In another 10th grade English class, students were working with a difficult text about apartheid. As part of the assignment, the teacher asked them to use AI to create a simpler version. Afterwards, the students compared it with the original to verify the content.

“In this case, the teacher exploited AI’s ability to adapt content to an individual’s level,” says Elgen.

In several final-year upper secondary classes (Vg3), students used AI while working with Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts. In some classrooms, students entered prompts containing details from the stage directions into the AI model. The goal was to produce a richer visual representation of the play’s atmosphere.

In another Vg3 class, students interacted with a chatbot programmed to act as a character from the play. The purpose was to gain a deeper understanding of that character. “In many ways you get some thoughts about Mrs. Alving that are very nice,” the teacher said.

Teaching the subject and AI at the same time

“What the examples above have in common is that the students practiced using AI while acquiring subject knowledge,” explains Professor Lisbeth M. Brevik at the University of Oslo's Department of Teacher Education and School Research.

The teachers therefore taught both with and about AI at the same time. They used their subject expertise to decide when it was appropriate to use AI.

“We see that the subject and AI often overlap,” she says.

Elgen points out that although digital tools offer many possibilities for teaching subject content, it is important to clarify the learning goal for students, as several teachers did:

“What should the students learn in the subject, and what should they learn about AI?”

AI competence means understanding what AI is, how it works, and how to use it responsibly and appropriately.

To succeed in teaching with and about AI, teachers need both strong subject knowledge and solid digital competence.

The teachers demonstrated this by solving challenges that arose when students practiced using AI.

They made students aware of the importance of digital judgment when using AI. They also used AI in ways that supported subject-specific learning.

Some are tempted to let AI do the work for them

Elgen stresses how crucial it is that students acquire fundamental skills. They should not allow a language model to take over essential processes involved in developing reading and writing abilities within the subject.

Some students, however, are tempted to let the technology do the work for them.

In a 10th grade English lesson, students used ChatGPT to obtain answers to questions they had been given in preparation for a discussion about Baz Luhrmann’s movie Romeo + Juliet. According to the students, they were only supposed to use the answers as inspiration.

“It did not seem that the students understood the difference between receiving finished answers from a machine and working with the text to formulate answers themselves,” says Elgen.

AI use must be conscious

Even though they were aware that they should not cheat with AI, the students used it in ways that were not particularly conducive to their own learning.

Similar use was observed in other 10th grade lessons.

Elgen emphasises that helping students grasp the nuanced differences between appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI is essential if they are to use it in ways that strengthen rather than weaken their learning.

She cites a recent UNICEF report confirming that students themselves find the regulations unclear. They are calling for clearer rules for AI use in school.

“There are large variations from school to school regarding guidelines for AI use. Both teachers and students would benefit from clear, locally defined rules,” she says.

Reference:

Elgen et al. Teaching with and about GenAI: A video study of English and Norwegian lessons in secondary classrooms in Norway, Teaching and Teacher Education, 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2026.105517

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