cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9348639
The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine monthly closed-book exams, high-school and college entrance exams, and homework scores and completion time across nine subjects. We exploit staggered AI adoption in a difference-in-differences design. AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months. High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years. The losses are largest in social science subjects, followed by STEM and languages, and are especially large for junior students, high-achieving students, and boys. The learning losses are concentrated among roughly 80% of AI users whose behavior is consistent with homework outsourcing, as indicated by exceptionally short homework completion time coupled with high homework scores. AI users who maintain similar homework completion time as non-AI users experience small learning losses.
I guess I’m too disabled to have a say because I’m far and away not representative of the average recipient of homework but I absolutely hated it. No one made a case for me back then why is had benefits the way you just did. I just refused to do it amd still passed exams, granted I don’t remember much of the contents of them.
What do you do when someone’s terminally disinterested? So much so you have teachers calling them “wastes of oxygen”? Guess it’s a fringe disability case but I’ve experienced it and seen it happen to others.
you really hit the nail on the head here, because i did this too: passing exams via cramming but never actually learning any material. that’s why i’m so interested in learning how to learn rn.
i mean firstly any teacher who is calling anyone a “waste of oxygen” is firstly completely wrong and secondly not being very motivating. learning how to motivate people is, imo, the very first job of any teacher lol. the subject material should be presented in a way such that its utility is made obvious to any student and therefore giving them interest to learn it. students should constantly be encouraged for any interest that they do show, and taught how to think correctly in the process (i.e. focusing more only long-term rather than short-term interests, not demeaning themselves or others for errors, things of that nature). i think with the right teaching method, so long as the subject material actually has utility (or inherent interest, depending on the topic) for people students being disinterested is a structural problem.
This is what is wrong with current education systems.
The whole system is built for 60% of people do well if they work hard while 20% are abandoned for not being capable and the other 20% are held back from their potential because they “don’t work hard” ignoring that they don’t work hard because the work is easy for them.
They reward diligence and hard work equally to people who can do the same work with ease.
I just found homework stressful and exhausting, especially as you get home after a full day of school and then have potentially hours of homework yet to go. Insane system.
It is. But it’s apparently how China does things and they produce the most accomplished scientists nowadays, people who are actively saving the world in the long term. I wonder if it’s because of or in spite of homework. What variables influence this?
I think mental health is more important than being as productive and accomplished as possible.
Individually, you are right. But one could argue that in seige countries, being productive and accomplished means the difference between being a resilient socialist state and succumbing to imperialist powers. On the other hand, I think studies have shown that people are at their most productive when working hours are short. But diminishing returns are still returns. I don’t know. But I’m looking forward to the fall of the empire because it means other countries can relax their guard.
I just think that the huge amount of work and pressure these kids are put under often causes them to burn out and become less productive.