AI Tutoring Outperforms In-Class Active Learning in Introductory Physics
As someone who has spent much of my career advocating for active learning instruction, I was a little alarmed at this study! But I'm glad they compared their AI tutor bot not to traditional lecturing (which we know is not optimal for student learning, especially in intro physics) but with current best practices in teaching (i.e., active learning instruction). Does this mean we should do away with active learning? No! As Michelle Miller wrote in her blog post about the study, this is more of an argument for the use of AI in out-of-class work for a flipped classroom.
We have found that when students interact with our AI tutor, at home, on their own, they learn significantly more than when they engage with the same content during an in-class active learning lesson, while spending less time on task. This finding underscores the transformative potential of AI tutors in authentic educational settings. In order to realize this potential for improving STEM outcomes, student-AI interactions must be carefully designed to follow research-based best practices.