About seven in 10 teachers in Arkansas say they are using artificial intelligence for lesson preparation. That's according to new research out today from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Andrea Malek Ashe is a senior research consultant with Gallup. We spoke over Zoom yesterday about their latest findings.
She says this research stems from a larger project that focuses on Gen Z and their experiences in the classroom.
Ashe: And of course, one of the things that we find — I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise — is that teachers are really important to students’ experiences and engagement at school and in promoting those really important lifelong outcomes that we want to see. And so as part of that, we decided we really need to be looking into teachers’ experiences and understanding what kind of roadblocks they face to doing their best work and some of the solutions they see in terms of making that work experience and teaching experience better for them.
So that's what started this work. And we do several studies a year in addition to an annual study with teachers nationwide. And as part of that, in the 2024–25 school year, we were also able to look deeper into Arkansas teachers’ experiences, specifically in a few of those areas. So we have some national findings and then more specific findings in a few areas from Arkansas educators.
And these are K–12 public school teachers at a national level across the nation, in every state. And in Arkansas.
Moore: In the 2024–25 school year, your survey shows that more than seven in 10 Arkansas teachers used AI tools in the classroom. Can you talk a little bit about what that means? Maybe more specifically, when we think about how they are using AI tools and maybe what tools they are using?
Ashe: Yeah, absolutely. And actually this is a question — exactly how they're using AI tools, what AI tools they're using — that we want to know more about ourselves and that we're continuing to study. At the time that we fielded this study, we asked about: in the 2024–25 school year, did you use any AI tools? And I could pull up the specific wording that we used, but we used a couple examples ranging from ChatGPT to school-specific types of AI tools like Magic School. Did you use any of these in your work as a teacher in the school year?
So that seven-in-10 number is the number who said, yes, I used AI at least once during this time. And then we also asked how frequently they were using the tools and for what purposes. So across all different types of purposes, about 36% of Arkansas teachers are using AI at least weekly, which is kind of at the top end of our frequency measure. And we do have some information, too, about how those teachers are using AI, which is interesting.
Moore: Yeah. So it looks like they're using it for myriad different ways to help really save time — is what it seems like is kind of the broad, overarching theme here — as a way to save time and focus more on individualized interactions with the students, is kind of what it reads to me like, right?
Ashe: Yeah. So we asked some questions on the front end about: how often do you use AI tools to blank? Like, what are you using the AI tools for? And the most common things in that area would be things like preparing to teach — so lesson planning, looking over instructional materials, making worksheets. And then a really important one: modifying materials to meet students’ needs. So that's what they're actually using AI on.
But then we also asked an open-ended question on: for those teachers who said, yes, I save time each week using AI tools, we wanted to know what they're using that time for. Like, if you're saving six hours a week, if you're using it weekly, where does that time go? And we get kind of a mix.
We know that burnout is a big issue among teachers. And so it was great to see that teachers are often using newfound time to be able to get home at a reasonable time in the evening. They're also able to individualize the curriculum, give more meaningful feedback to students — maybe they have time now to write a more nuanced comment or recognize a student's strengths — and then also to spend more one-on-one time with students in the classroom and during the school day.
So it's not just that they're saving time on a task. It's also about where that time is going and how it's being reinvested back into students.
Moore: Yeah. And that's, I think, really fascinating to me as I think about my experience in a classroom pre-AI, pre-Chromebooks, all of this stuff — the way that technology has integrated itself into a classroom. The thing that I valued the most in my education was having that sort of face-to-face, one-on-one interaction with a teacher. And I imagine that that will forever be a constant, or at least I hope that it will be.
Ashe: Yeah, absolutely. I have a quote here from one of our Arkansas teachers. After being able to save time on AI tools, they say, “Now I've been able to implement daily intervention time for at-risk students, as well as enrichment time every day for all students.” So they're also talking about that face-to-face time that you're talking about. And rather than it happening maybe once a month, it sounds here like it's more regular. It can be a bigger part of their teaching practice.
Moore: Do we have any idea how the use of AI changes from, say, elementary school teachers to high school teachers? I mean, the way that they're using curriculum changes a lot from primary school to high school. Are we seeing any sort of change specifically, or do you have that data at all?
Ashe: That's a great question. At a national level, we see that 60% of teachers use AI overall. It is lower in elementary teachers. And again, this was last school year — we're going to collect this data again this school year, we're really interested in how this has changed, we're going to ask more questions. But last year it was 60% of teachers overall using AI. Elementary school teachers are at 55%. And then middle and high school teachers are closer to 66–67%. So it is about a 10-percentage-point gap.
Moore: I'm curious, as we see the growth of AI for teachers and teachers finding ways to utilize it better in a classroom, do we have any data on how teachers are reckoning with their students using AI, or how they are integrating their use of AI to be a leading example of: here's how I find AI useful, and here's how AI doesn't replace the sort of thing that I do?
Ashe: Yeah. And again, we have these same questions that we want to dig into more. It's really exciting. I'll say in terms of teachers’ overall views of the impact of AI both on their own teaching and on students — if it's okay, I'd like to look at the national data for that. We have some national context that we can look in there.
So at a national level, we asked teachers about the benefits of AI for students as well as some of the drawbacks. And, interestingly, we actually see similar perceptions from teachers as we do students. So in terms of the top opportunities that AI presents for students — we asked teachers: if your students used AI at least weekly, what impact would the AI have on these student outcomes?
They see opportunities. For example, 33% say that AI tools could increase students’ engagement, could increase their grades. Other things at the top of the list are motivation, even preparation for being successful in college, which is something that we're paying attention to. So again, about three in 10 teachers think that AI could increase those things.
In terms of the greatest risks that teachers see for students, it's mostly around critical thinking. So 57% think that AI could decrease students’ abilities for independent thinking, critical thinking. About half think it could decrease their persistence when solving problems, resilience for overcoming challenges. And in our Gen Z data, we ask students a similar question, and they also are more likely to see risks outweighing the benefits when it comes to critical thinking.
Moore: We're seeing about seven in 10 Arkansas teachers who are utilizing AI in some capacity. What about that three in 10 — the other side of that coin — of people who aren't using AI? Do we have any qualitative data on why they're choosing not to use it?
Ashe: Well, we know this is a technology that is up and coming. And I'm so glad you're pointing it out — there's such a huge diversity of the use of AI. So if some teachers are using it even daily, the fact that, like you said, three in 10 aren't using it at all, maybe have never tried one of these tools — those teachers are probably having a really different experience when it comes to how they're approaching their day-to-day teaching right now and interactions with students who might be trying to use AI.
In terms of reasons for uptake, I don't have data on reasons exactly, but we do know that less-experienced teachers — which also happens to correlate with younger teachers — are more likely to use it than older teachers.
And then something else important that we found in our data was: schools that don't have a policy on AI use are less likely to have teachers who are using AI in their work. A lot of people are trying AI right now, but we want to do it in the right way. A lot of teachers don't want to make a mistake, don't want to make a privacy error. They want to do it in the right way. And if a school has any kind of policy — even if it's to say, hey, don't use it in these circumstances, or in really great examples, there are some districts that are wonderful in saying, hey, here are some programs you can use, these have been vetted — that school policy actually makes a big difference for teachers.
We also see that impact in students. Schools that have these AI policies are more likely to have students using AI for their schoolwork in a productive way. And this is something we care about because urban and rural schools are less likely to have both teachers and students using AI. They're also the ones least likely to have the policies. And schools with higher percentages of students on free and reduced lunch are also less likely to have a policy on AI and less likely to have teachers and students who are using AI.
So if we see the use of AI and literacy around AI tools as relevant to students' futures, it's kind of concerning that there seems to be this gap in some schools and districts not having that policy. So overall, I think something we'd love to see is more schools and districts doing that intentional work to think about what kind of policy could support their teachers and support their students in using AI tools in a productive way.
Moore: I'm curious, as I think about how there was probably some reticence in years past thinking about the use of just general internet technology in classrooms — I think about when I was in middle school and high school, Wikipedia was a place where teachers told you: do not use Wikipedia as a resource. And today Wikipedia is often a jumping start, a place for a student to say, here are some resources, here are some cited places where I can begin to do my research.
When we think about the proliferation of AI in the next five, 10, 15 years, do you imagine that we will be at a place where even rural and small schools across Arkansas and the country have Chromebooks in the classroom, they have this sort of technology in the classroom? Do you think it's a matter of time before we start to see this everywhere, all the time?
Ashe: Based on the data we're seeing, certainly. I mean, the fact that seven in 10 Arkansas teachers have used AI in this prior year tells you already, yes, we're seeing exponential growth. I think you're alluding to this with your Wikipedia example. One thing is the difference between using this technology for learning versus doing other things. And I do think that's something a lot of teachers and schools and districts are paying attention to.
How can we use AI in a way that promotes learning — where you might want to make mistakes, you might want to understand what goes into something, what goes into a process — versus when are good times to use AI tools maybe to make something that you do more effective or efficient or add on to what you already do? So it's definitely all about nuance and use and applications.
And when I think of AI right now, my mind often goes to ChatGPT — for a lot of us, that's the main way we use it. But educators and schools right now are starting to pay more attention to education-specific AI tools, which I think can help teachers make that discrimination too between applications of AI for education versus other things.
Moore: Right. And I think we often think of ChatGPT as “asked and answered.” You ask a question, it's answered, you move on. And I think that was one of the issues growing up with Wikipedia — you look it up, it's there, you move on. You don't think critically about how did they gain this information, how did they collect this data. And as we move forward with AI, I'm sure this is happening in educational-based AI that we're seeing — not just “here's the answer,” but “here’s how I got that answer.” And I imagine that helps to build that sort of critical thinking skill in a way that might be hard to articulate in a classroom.
Ashe: Yeah, definitely. And that's why the teacher is so important. We still need the teacher just as much as ever. That expert individual helping to guide the student is so important.
I just want to repeat this one really big number, which is that those teachers who are using it at least weekly — so 36% of Arkansas teachers — if a teacher is using AI weekly or at least weekly, they told us they're saving six hours a week, which is an incredible number. And when you add up six hours a week over a typical school year, that's six weeks a school year, which is a lot of time. And I don't know if we mentioned that number, which just really sticks out to me.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
