Generative AI in Secondary Educators' Perspectives on Academic Learning and Integrity

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI), as represented by products like ChatGPT, has matured and assumed the role of already being a powerful agent in a range of industries including the academic sphere of the secondary learning institutions. LLMs can be used in numerous applications best exemplified by the widely used ChatGPT, an application of Gen AI that employs LLMs to produce natural language outputs that are as good as human writing, for tasks as diverse as answering challenging questions and writing code. The use of these tools hereby raised questions of how they really shape the process of academic teaching and learning more under focus. However, quite a few research concentrating on the influence of such systems on students’ performance and the usage of such systems. This study therefore examines the impact of GPT tools on secondary education, aiming to address the following research questions: What impact does the integration of GPTs have on the delivery and receipt of education in secondary school? Some of questions are regarding school educators’ perceptions of the impacts of GPTs on educational practices. This qualitative study makes use of semi structured interviews with educators from the Islamabad FG school where GPT has been implemented. Transcriptions were made from the gathered data and OpenAI’s Whisper was used to detect relevant patterns and trends at the same time. Data analysis was done through distinguishing the themes, and then categorizing the data into the relevant codes. The research highlights the profound dual nature of GPT when the technology has many opportunities to advance the educational process and individualization of learning, it also has multiple problematic aspects such as academic dishonesty, overdependence on the AI, and changes to valuable soft skills. These results contribute to the literature on digital learning pointing to the instructional and constructive use of technologies like GenAI. However, the advances made and the integration of GPT in our daily lives are inevitable, and returning to prior state is out of the question. The research uses a qualitative approach and includes semi structured interviews with educators from Islamabad FG school, who have implemented GPT in their programs. The collected data were transcribed and analyzed using OpenAI’s Whisper to But it is vital to embrace future-oriented opportunities of AI while experiencing its negative effects for the future and development in this age of AI. The study underscores the need to establish concrete guidelines that will enable the achievement of the benefits addressed under GPT while at the same time avoiding distortion of the educational processes. Therefore, this study offers important findings to educators, policymakers and scholars about the ethical and optimal integration of AI in secondary learning institutions.