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A few years ago, not just the Czech education system underwent a radical change from in-person to remote learning triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers and students are now facing another revolution in the form of generative artificial intelligence. Experts led by Tomáš Lintner from the SYRI National Institute and the MU Faculty of Arts want to thoroughly investigate how Czech education actually works in light of AI.
How Czech education actually works in light of AI is still a big unknown. The researchers are therefore launching a research project that will include the largest data collection in the Czech Republic to date. Their goal is to engage dozens of high schools from across the country and obtain answers to questions related to trends in this area.
What specifically will you focus on in your research?
We are interested in how high school students use AI in their classroom preparation, homework and extracurricular activities. At the same time, we will investigate the level of AI literacy among students and teachers. Most education systems in the world have so far failed to respond to the development of artificial intelligence and literacy in this area is insufficient. We will therefore also collect data from teachers on what they need from the MoE to support their work with AI.
What is AI literacy?
AI literacy is the body of knowledge and skills that enable you to work with AI productively, safely and responsibly. It’s not just about the practical mastery of tools such as searching, creating, verifying and editing outputs, but also the ability to recognise the risks that AI brings to society - for example, deepfakes and other forms of manipulated information, distortions in data and models, invasions of privacy, non-transparent automated decision-making or impacts on fairness and equal opportunity.
Although we may not realise it, virtually everyone comes into contact with AI or its products on a daily basis - from recommendation algorithms in searches, social media and e-commerce, to spam filtering, text translation and correction, navigation and traffic prediction, personalised news and advertising, to fraud detection in banking, smart homes and automated systems in healthcare and public services.
Can AI literacy be measured?
AI literacy is a rapidly developing research field; yet few current tools meet the elementary requirements for quality measurement across groups and ages. Our goal is therefore, among other things, to validate the functionality of AI literacy tests and deliver tools that work. The current paradox is that no education system has yet introduced standardised AI literacy testing into school practice - thus organisations implementing international comparative testing of students. States thus lack reliable evidence on the impact of policies and interventions aimed at developing AI literacy, and cannot systematically compare or manage them based on data.
Artificial intelligence has been available to the general public for almost two years. You will be researching secondary education, but what is the situation like at Czech primary schools?
By 2024, a third of primary school pupils were using AI regularly to prepare for lessons, and the same number of children thought they did not need to learn rote knowledge at school. It is easier for them to figure out how to ask the right questions, how to work with AI and how to use it for what they want to do in the future. The number of children who refuse to memorise school material is increasing exponentially. Since 2022 and 2023, when there was a boom in the availability of generative artificial intelligence, students are undergoing a value reversal. More and more of them think that it is no longer important to study certain subjects and learn knowledge by heart. At the same time, AI tools are more likely to be used by students who have lower grades in mathematics and Czech compared to others ,and also have lower real-world knowledge in these subjects.
Why is that?
We do not know what will come first yet. Pupils may be underperforming precisely because they are using AI in perhaps not quite the right way. They may just want quick and easy answers, but that may not be good for their cognitive growth. However, it may also be the other way around, and students who are the lowest achievers in the subjects studied may be more motivated to use AI in their school preparation, for example, because they feel they are not getting enough attention at school. That is why we are launching long-term data collection in secondary schools, where we will be able to separate these processes and formulate specific measures for schools.
Artificial intelligence is changing the approach to education in a comprehensive way. How is the state responding to this?
Very little, for now. Indeed, because our research shows that increased use of AI in school preparation does not automatically lead to better knowledge and understanding, it is crucial that we teach students to use it effectively and ethically. Various organisations, including the National Institute of Education, are currently organising training for teachers on how they can use AI tools in the classroom and how to teach about AI. However, these courses fall far short of the needs of schools. Our research shows that it is often the students who are more proficient in using AI than their teachers.
- Moreover, teachers themselves are so busy with teaching and the indirect activities that go with teaching that they are often self-educating at the expense of their own free time. Children, by contrast, adopt AI naturally, not least given their age. Yet only a small percentage of them are fully aware of the risks of AI.
What will be the future role of schools in AI?
If we want to have a society resilient to the risks associated with AI, the role of schools will be crucial. Schools need to systematically foster competences and attitudes that enable children to understand and use technology safely, without succumbing to it. The education system cannot give up on striving to ensure that children have access to the skills that will enable them not only to actively exploit the potential of AI, but also to protect themselves from its risks and impacts on their daily lives and future careers, and rely on children to learn it for themselves.
Artificial intelligence is both a challenge and an opportunity: where it is didactically well integrated, it increases motivation, personalises learning and helps to achieve better results. If we seize the opportunity and make changes quickly and "from the ground up" - from curriculum to teacher support - AI will become a tool that strengthens learning, civic resilience and children’s ability to function safely and responsibly in a world where AI systems are present at every turn.