This report by the Education Endowment Foundation shows that teachers using ChatGPT can reduce their lesson planning time by 31%.
The independent evaluation of the trial, led by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), investigated teachers’ use of ChatGPT during lesson and resource planning and the impact on their workload.
The evaluators found that the group of teachers who used ChatGPT shaved off an average of 25.3 minutes from their weekly Year 7 and 8 lesson and resource planning time compared to the comparison group of teachers who were asked not to use ChatGPT or any other generative AI tools.
This brought their Year 7 and 8 planning time down to 56.2 minutes per week compared to 81.5 minutes in the group asked to avoid using any generative AI. These findings highlight the potential for tools like ChatGPT to help address the stubborn issue of high workloads for teachers.
As well as looking at the impact on workload of utilising ChatGPT, the research also considered the key question of its impact on lesson quality. A sample of lesson materials and resources collected from teachers were reviewed by an independent panel of teachers. The analysis indicated no noticeable difference in quality between the two groups.