Scottish teachers call for overhaul of school assessments due to growing use of AI

Assessments in Scottish schools and colleges need to be completely overhauled as a result of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, teachers have said.

The call emerged from a focus group study for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), involving 16 school teachers, nine college lecturers, and eight other education practitioners.

Several participants called for a review of what assessments are ultimately aiming to achieve, suggesting that in future they should be more focussed on demonstrating “higher order thinking skills”.

It comes amid growing concerns about the opportunities for plagiarism created for pupils and students through the use of generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT or Google Bard.

OpenAI and ChatGPT logo. Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images | MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

During the SQA focus groups, one participant said: “I don’t think for one minute that they [learners] should be banned from using AI in any kind of form. But I think we’ll need to start looking at assessments again to maybe get oral verification and what they’re speaking about, do they know what they’re writing about? Assessment have got to change.”

Another teacher said: “I think we have to now look at what we are trying to achieve when we’re assessing … we need to move away from this idea that we’re testing their memory.

“That’s not what it’s about anymore. That’s a pointless exercise ... it’s about the interrogation of data. It’s about their analysis of it. It’s about using the tools to improve their output and being able to continually evaluate that as well.”

Many participants said the SQA should provide more clarification around what constitutes cheating and plagiarism specifically in regard to generative AI.

There was also a “strong appetite” among practitioners for more guidance, including in terms of what kind of GenAI tools were appropriate to use for their subject area, how these tools can be used to support learning, how much use of these tools is acceptable, and what are the risks and opportunities of each tool.

Meanwhile, the study found a general agreement among teachers the SQA should be responsible for the use of GenAI in relation to assessments and qualifications, while Education Scotland should have oversight of the use of the technology in teaching and learning within the curriculum.

Currently, the use of generative AI tools is not permitted by the SQA for work that could be submitted as part of assessment tasks that contribute towards a qualification.

SQA also continues to discourage the use of referencing GenAI outputs, saying they cannot be regarded as a reliable source of information.

The majority of focus group participants were of the view the SQA, which is due to be replaced by Qualifications Scotland, needed to acknowledge when and how GenAI could be used to support the learning process.

One said: “We need to be able to say yeah, you can use the generative AI, but if the information on there is rubbish or it’s not at the right level, then you lose marks in the same way you would have lost marks if you had a textbook in front of you to write that part out.”

Theodore Pengelley, chair of SQA’s artificial intelligence and emergent technology group, said: “This latest report is the second stage of SQA’s consultation on the use of AI in education and follows the publication of research in July last year, where over 500 educators were surveyed on GenAI use in education.

“This new research will be used to review and adapt SQA’s GenAI statement for the 2024/25 academic year.”