Research School Network: AI lesson planning can help save teachers’ time EEF trial finds there might be work reduction benefits in using ChatGPT to plan aspects of lessons

The Education Endowment Foundation published, in December 2024, findings from a Teacher Choices trial examining the use of ChatGPT in Key Stage 3 science lesson preparation. This study explored whether integrating generative AI could alleviate teacher workload without compromising lesson quality.

Study Overview

The trial involved 259 science teachers from 68 secondary schools across England. Teachers were divided into two groups: one utilised ChatGPT, supported by an online guide, for lesson and resource preparation; the other group prepared lessons without AI assistance. Lessons prepared as part of the project took place for 10 weeks in year 7 and 8 Science lessons.

Key Findings

- Reduced Planning Time: Teachers using ChatGPT reported an average weekly planning time of 56.2 minutes, compared to 81.5 minutes in the non-AI group, saving approximately 25 minutes per week.

- Selective AI use: Teachers primarily employed ChatGPT for specific tasks such as creating questions, quizzes, and generating new activity ideas, rather than for comprehensive lesson planning.

- Maintained Lesson Quality: There was no significant difference in the quality of lesson materials between the two groups.

Quality of lessons was judged by a panel of five science teachers: three were experienced teachers (more than 20 years of teaching with management responsibilities – either head of science or KS3 leader) and the other two were earlier in their careers, including one early career teacher (ECT).

Participating teachers had to submit all of their lesson resources and materials for three of their nominated Year 7 and/​or Year 8 science lessons delivered in weeks six to ten. 15 ChatGPT lessons and 15 non-ChatGPT lessons were looked at by the panel but they did not know which were which. The panel scored the lessons in four areas (clarity of lesson resources; activities engage students with learning and check their understanding; appropriateness for age and ability; quality and accuracy of science content), with a score out of five for each.

Implications for Educators

These findings suggest that, with appropriate support, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can effectively reduce lesson preparation time without diminishing educational quality, carrying benefits in terms of teacher workload and wellbeing.