Rate my AI teacher? Students’ perceptions of chatbots will influence how they learn with AI

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

“Transformation” awaits us. After years of creating educational technology products that once promised to shake things upNow it's the AI's turn.

Global organizations such as That Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmentand also government bodiesimagine A.I. the public as “transformative”.

Prominent AI companies with large language model (LLM) chatbots have “education-focused” products such as ChatGPT Education, Claude for Education. and Gemini on Google for Education.

Artificial intelligence products open up exciting new ways to find, represent and use knowledge, and generated widespread interest and enthusiasm for technology among young students. However, there are critical problem areas regarding the use of AI, such as privacy, transparency and data accuracy.

Current conversations about AI in education focus on the notion that it will disrupt teaching and learning systems in schools, lesson planning and grading by teachers, or personalized learning (for example, through personalized learning for students using chatbots). However, when and whether AI will change education remains an open question.

At the same time, it is very important to think about how student participation The use of chatbots should force us to examine some fundamental assumptions about human learning.

Learning is a social matter

How students feel about their teachers and themselves ability to contemplate thinking (known as metacognition) are extremely important for learning. These factors need to be considered when we think about learning with chatbots.

Popularity Rate my professors website in Canada, the US and the UK is a testament to the importance of what students think of teachers.

With the advent of AI in education, students' perceptions of their mentors, teachers, and classmates will also matter for several reasons.

First, learning is an entirely social enterprise. From how a child learns through imitation and modeling of others interact with or be influenced peers in classsocial interactions matter to how we learn.

With the growing use of chatbots more than 300 million users per monthconversational interaction with LLM also represents a new space of parasocial interaction for people around the world.

What we think about interaction partners

Second, theories of mind suggest that what we think about others influences how we interact with them. Like children interpret, process, or respond to social cues influences their learning.

To develop this idea further, beyond others students or teachers As interaction partners, what we think about learning tools influences how we learn.

Our understanding of the tools and their capabilities– quality or property of a tool that “defines its possible uses or explains how it can or should be used“…may have implications for how we use the tool.

Perceived Opportunities can dictate how we use tools, from cookware to computers. If the student perceives chatbot if they are good at generating ideas, this may influence how they use them (for example, for brainstorming rather than editing).

New “social essence”

Artificial intelligence systems, at a minimum, represent the emergence of a new social subject in the educational environment, as was the case in social environment. Human ideas about AI can be understood under the broader concept of artificial intelligence theory, referring to how humans make inferences about the internal states of an AI to predict actions and understand behavior. This theory expands the concept of theory of mind. to non-human artificial intelligence systems.

The theory of artificial human intelligence may develop based on biological maturation and exposure to technology, and may vary significantly from person to person.

Three aspects to consider

It is important to consider how students' beliefs about AI may influence trust in the information received from AI systems; personalized learning with AI; and the role that AI can play in a child's social life:

1. Trust: In human learning, the judgments we make about knowledge and learning are of great importance for the acceptance of ideas. inherent in educational material.

From recent studies of children's interactions with conversational AI systems, we see that children's trust in information from AI varies depending on factors such as age and type of information. A student's theory of artificial intelligence will likely influence their willingness to trust information received from AI.

2. Personalized training: Research on intelligent teaching systems (ITS) has shown: excellent results on how traditional ITS – without the involvement of chatbots – can help students and also help them identify learning gaps for self-correction. New chatbot-based ITS such as KhanMigo from Khan Academy are sold as providing personalized recommendations and new ways to interact with content.

A student's theory of artificial intelligence can influence the quality of interaction between them and their AI chatbot tutor, as well as how accepting they are of their learning support.

3. Social relations: Artificial Friend (“AF”) in “Clara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro. is a striking literary example of the influence that an artificial creature can have on a growing child's sense of self and attitude towards the world.

We can already see the detrimental effects of exposing children to artificially intelligent social chatbots in the tragic suicide of a child who was allegedly involved in emotional and sexual conversations in chat with Character.AI chatbot.

Social relationships with AI involve a major renegotiation of the social contract regarding our expectations and understanding of each other. Here, relationships with children require special attention, first of all, whether we want the children to develop. social relations with AI first.

Where do we go from here?

There are many discussions currently unfolding about AI literacy, including, for example, understanding how AI functions, its limitations, and ethical issues. During these conversations, it is important for educators to recognize that students have an intuitive understanding of how AI (or theory of artificial intelligence) functions. Students' intuitive perceptions of AI shape how they perceive its educational capabilities, even without formal training.

Teaching must take into account students' cognitive development, existing experiences, and evolving social context.

The future of Rate My AI Teacher is here. This will require focusing on students' perceptions of AI to ensure effective, ethical, and meaningful integration of AI into future educational environments.

Provided by
Talk


This article has been republished from Talk under Creative Commons license. Read original article.Talk

Citation: Rate my AI teacher? Students' Perceptions of Chatbots Will Influence How They Learn with AI (October 31, 2025), Retrieved November 1, 2025, from https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ai-teacher-students-perceptions-chatbots.html.

This document is protected by copyright. Except in good faith for the purposes of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.

Leave a Comment