Bodil-Marie Gade has been a high school teacher for 20 years. At the high school of Horsens Gymnasium & HF, she loves teaching students Danish, French, and rhetoric.
But over the past decade, she has seen a shift that worries her.
More and more, she notices a lack of deep focus and concentration among students.
»It’s become harder for students to do an assignment for any length of time«, she says.
»They get distracted by screens incredibly quickly«.
»It worries me a lot, because I think it’s healthy for our brains to be able to immerse ourselves in something for a long time«, she says.
Over the past three years, another threat has appeared in the classroom: the use of artificial intelligence.
Grey zone
Bodil-Marie Gade has just examined the first students from the ’Generation ChatGPT’ – the generation that, for the first time, has had access to artificial intelligence throughout all three years of high school.
»At the beginning of 10th grade, I mostly got astonished looks when we talked about ai. It barely registered at all«, she says.
But then artificial intelligence came roaring in. Slowly, Bodil-Marie Gade began receiving Danish essays that made her suspicious about the use of ai.
Her suspicion arises when she reads essays with an unusually high level of abstraction, where the connection to anything concrete is missing.
»It can also be passages where the language differs so much from the student’s usual way of expressing themselves that it looks like the student wasn’t really involved at all«, she says.
If Bodil-Marie Gade suspects that an assignment was written by ai, she tells the student that she wonders.
»I can’t know with 100 percent certainty whether they used ai«
Aren’t you afraid of accusing someone who actually just used their own brainpower?
»Yes, but we have to have a dialogue about this dilemma. I talk openly with students about the grey areas, so they don’t feel like I’m accusing them«.
This summer, Bodil-Marie Gade graded about 209 essays as an external examiner. During exams, students are monitored, which makes it harder for them to use ai.
She found that students have simply gotten worse at writing. We’re not talking about the occasional misplaced comma or a forgotten present-tense ending, but rather entire sentences that are a mess, where the syntax collapses, she says.
»I sensed a lack of linguistic and cognitive training. It was few and far between. It was very striking«, she says.
Politiken has previously described a random sampling conducted by Danish Upper Secondary Schools that may help show that students used artificial intelligence to such an extent that they were not properly prepared for the written exam.
Over the past decade, students nationwide have received an average between 6.5 and 6.8 on the written Danish exam. But at the 11 schools selected for the random sampling, the students’ average this year was 6.1.
What about the teachers?
Seventeen-year-old Pippi Lester Hyllested is in 11th grade at Nørre Gymnasium in Brønshøj. She misses a nuanced debate about the use of ai, because she is tired of being a target.
»I think it’s unfair that we high school students are the ones in the spotlight. We are often being shamed for using ai«, she says.
The Danish Evaluation Institute has previously mapped students’ use of ai in high school. The study found that nine out of ten high school students use artificial intelligence in connection with school.
Two out of three students say in the study that at least once they have used artificial intelligence in a way they consider cheating when turning in assignments. Nine out of ten say they have cheated in connection with group work in class.
In early August, Education Minister Magnus Heunicke (The Social Democratic Party) presented an »emergency package« of initiatives aimed at curbing ai cheating at high schools. Among other things, it means students will have to do more written assignments at school while under supervision.
Pippi Lester Hyllested believes that the vast majority of students use ai as a tool. She herself uses ai when there are concepts she doesn’t understand.
»Basically, most of us students actually like learning«, she says.
She also believes the criticism should be aimed just as much at teachers, who themselves use artificial intelligence in instruction. She can see it in the formatting, the language, and open ChatGPT tabs. Sometimes it’s so bad that she feels like she’s being taught by a robot.
»I think it’s hypocritical that students are called cheaters while teachers can do whatever they want«, she says.
Pippi Lester Hyllested describes an »uneasy atmosphere« at the school, because many fear how the exams will unfold. She worries that we will end up celebrating those who drink Red Bull and can perform at their absolute peak under intense pressure for a few isolated tests, she says.
»We risk having some people fall through the cracks of the entire education system«.
Pippi Lester Hyllested feels that trust in young people is disappearing.
»If we get good grades, no one really believes it was because of us. The trust in us has completely collapsed«, she says.
Feeling of grief
Bodil-Marie Gade is certain that many students use ai. in a sensible way. But many also do not, she says.
»We’re not talking about just a few students in each class using it inappropriately. Unfortunately not«.
»But I do think it’s true that only a few have a real intention to cheat«, she says.
She herself uses artificial intelligence as a tool in daily life, and she has no problem having ChatGPT open in a tab so students can see it.
»But students are at a completely different stage of learning than we teachers are. We have a whole different body of knowledge in the back of our minds that we draw on. They still have to learn that, and it’s a problem if they don’t«, she says.
Bodil-Marie Gade gives grades less often for the work students do at home. Instead, they receive grades for assignments done at school, where she is present.
If it is clear that a student turns in something they did not produce themselves – with or without the use of ai – the school’s rules are that the student receives a warning. A third warning is grounds for expulsion.
Technological development has made her worried. She loves her job as a high school teacher, but she can recognize the feeling of »learning grief«.
»It’s sad when your subject, which you care so deeply about, changes dramatically because of outside circumstances«.
»The entire way I’ve loved teaching for 20 years. Now the rug is being pulled out from under us. We’re on shaky ground«, she says.
Pippi Lester Hyllested would like to see technological literacy as a subject in high school, where students can learn how ai can, in a sensible way, make people smarter.
Bodil-Marie Gade does not rule out that there may be a need for a new subject focused on technological literacy – or at least some dedicated modules. She has also long been calling for more continuing education in artificial intelligence for teachers.
»There’s clearly a lack of instruction in this for all of us«, she says.
Because Bodil-Marie Gade is tired of having to act as an enforcer toward students.
That was never why she became a teacher.
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