Teachers have 'serious concerns' over use of AI in Leaving Cert project work

In the chemistry document, the guide to sourcing references in each student’s final submission notes 'appropriate details' should be provided of any 'material generated by AI software and AI applications' such as ChatGPT.

Teaching unions have expressed “serious concerns” after guidelines were issued for project work at Leaving Cert level that would allow artificial intelligence (AI) to be used as source material.

Guidelines were issued earlier this week by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment for at least four subjects – chemistry, biology, physics, and business – as part of the new additional assessment component (AAC) - which will go live next September.

The AAC is project work that will be worth at least 40% of the final Leaving Cert marks in each subject. The initiative was instigated by the State Examinations Commission as a way of moving away from purely exam-dependent marks in the student senior cycle.

The text concerning AI in the new guidelines is broadly similar for each subject. In the chemistry document, the guide to sourcing references in each student’s final submission notes that “appropriate details” should be provided of any “material generated by AI software and AI applications” such as ChatGPT.

“Plagiarism is a serious offence,” the guidelines state. “This includes the use of material generated using AI software or AI applications.”

The new guidance “ignores the reality of generative AI” according to John Conneely, a physics teacher at St Flannan’s College in Ennis.

Mr Conneely said that the new guidelines, together with the fact AAC will be worth 40% of marks, will "undoubtedly encourage students to engage in unethical behaviour” given “the content required for the research investigation can be generated in a matter of minutes by ChatGPT”.

“The Leaving Cert is a high stakes exam. 40% of marks allocated would be too much even without the developments in generative AI.”

“How can teachers be expected to authenticate work submitted when there is no mechanism for detecting work carried out with the aid of generative AI?” he asked.

A spokesperson for the NCCA said the guidelines had been developed using feedback from teachers and the Department of Education, adding that the guidance “does not encourage or require students to use AI”, only that they should acknowledge if they have used it.

The Department, meanwhile, said that publication of the guidelines delivers on a commitment to provide assessment material to teachers, adding that the instructions “make clear” that students who have used AI-generated material without acknowledging that fact will be considered to have plagiarised.

The TUI union, which represents second and third level educators, said that “teachers have serious concerns over the use of AI, particularly in relation to assessment methods”.

A spokesperson noted that Minister for Education Norma Foley had postponed plans for teachers to mark their own students’ work for the purpose of the State exams in September 2023, a decision she had said was “due to concerns about the impact of AI”.

“The impact of AI on the integrity of additional assessment components for state certification must also be seriously considered,” the spokesperson said, adding that concerns regarding the new project work and AI was “one of the reasons” why the TUI had called for a delay in the implementation of the overhaul of the senior cycle.

Kieran Christie, general secretary of the TUI’s sister union, the ASTI, is calling for the postponement of the implementation of new specifications for the revised Leaving Cert “for a number of reasons, including the fact that the research by the SEC on AI and assessment has not been concluded”.