EFFECTS OF ChatGPT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF GRADE 10 SP-ICT

STUDENTS

CHAPTER I

Introduction

Abstract

This study explores the effects of ChatGPT on the academic performance of Grade 10 SP-ICT

students. With the increasing use of artificial intelligence in education, ChatGPT has been

utilized as a tool for learning and enhancing students' comprehension in various subjects. The

research examines how the integration of ChatGPT influences students' performance, focusing

on academic outcomes, engagement, and efficiency. Data were gathered through surveys and

academic records to assess the correlation between ChatGPT usage and academic improvement.

Preliminary findings suggest that ChatGPT provides supplementary learning support, leading to

a moderate positive effect on students’ performance. However, challenges such as over-reliance

on the tool were also observed. Further research is needed to explore the long-term implications

of AI in education.

Keywords: ChatGPT, academic performance, Grade 10, SP-ICT students, artificial intelligence,

education, learning support

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly OpenAI’s

Generative AI (GenAI) chatbot, ChatGPT, has created both opportunities and challenges across

various sectors, especially in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education

(Alenizi MAK 2023). GenAI tools offer a wide range of capabilities, from generating detailed

and coherent responses, summarizing complex data, to creating images and solving intricate

problems. Despite their immense potential, the use of these tools in educational contexts has

sparked debate among educators, researchers, and policymakers, with concerns about academic

integrity and the spread of misinformation (Rudolph J and Hostetter, 2023).

Advocates for these AI tools argue that, when used ethically and effectively, they can foster both

creative and critical thinking in students (Hostetter, 2023). This mirrors the broader discussion

about AI’s role in education, where educators strive to balance the advantages and risks involved.

Existing research highlights ChatGPT’s potential to mimic human tutor performance by

providing personalized instruction and feedback (Adiguzel T, 2023). Educators are reportedly

using these AI tools for diverse tasks such as developing lesson plans and assessments (Jimenez

K. 2023). AI tools have also shown promise in supporting English language learners (Mohamed

AM. 2023). However, there are concerns about misuse, as some studies reveal that students may

use ChatGPT to cheat, underscoring the need for ethical guidelines and responsible use in

academic settings (Study.Com: 2023).

explored. Research suggests that ChatGPT can effectively categorize open-text responses,

streamline data analysis, and even transform academic writing and communication (Mellon J,

and Lund BD, 2023). Despite these findings, there remains a gap in understanding how students

interact with ChatGPT, highlighting the need for further exploration of its use as a tutor or

assistive tool, rather than merely a solution provider.

To address this gap, the current study aims to expand on these findings, introducing new insights

into the topic. The research began with the formulation of specific research questions, which

guided the experimental design and the development of a survey instrument. This instrument

focused on students' experiences using ChatGPT, particularly while performing data analysis

tasks.
 Review Related Literature

Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become a vital tool in education, offering various

applications to support both teaching and learning. One AI-driven platform, ChatGPT, has gained

significant attention due to its potential to impact students' academic performance. As an

advanced language model, ChatGPT is capable of generating human-like responses, providing

explanations, and assisting students in completing tasks. This literature review aims to explore

the effects of ChatGPT on the academic performance of Grade 10 Special Program in

Information and Communication Technology (SP ICT) students by reviewing existing studies on

AI applications in education, the potential benefits, and the challenges associated with their

integration in the classroom.

What is ChatGPT?

Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, or ChatGPT (Roose, 2022), was introduced by

OpenAI in November 2022. It is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model family and uses

supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. Following its release, ChatGPT quickly

received recognition for its thorough responses and articulate answers in various subject areas

(Quinn et al., 2020; Vincent, 2022a). As a highly advanced AI language model, ChatGPT has

many different potential applications. Its ability to provide detailed and articulate answers across

many knowledge domains has already made it a valuable resource for various fields, including

education, journalism, and academic research. Additionally, its use of transfer learning and

reinforcement learning techniques makes it an effective tool for daily life scenarios in academic

and educational environments, as well as in numerous other situations (Jiao et al., 2023; Rudolph

et al., 2023; Susnjak, 2022; Zhai, 2022). ChatGPT was further enhanced through a combination of
supervised and reinforcement learning techniques based on GPT-3.5 (Greengard, 2022). This AI

technology offers high-tech contributions to human feedback, which can improve user

performance through the provision of conversational examples in supervised learning and in

ranking its responses in reinforcement learning. Ranked responses have been used to develop

reward models, and the model was further optimized through multiple iterations of Proximal

Policy Optimization (PPO) (Vincent, 2022b). The ChatGPT program offers versatile abilities

such as being able to mimic human conversation, the writing and debugging of computer

programs, creating lyrics for music, answering test questions, writing poetry and other lyrics, as

well as game playing (Edwards, 2022; Heilweil, 2022). ChatGPT has access to information about

Internet phenomena and programming languages, can remember previous prompts within a

conversation, and is monitored in order to prevent offensive output, unlike its processor

InstructGPT (Chawla, 2022). However, it does have its limitations, such as producing incorrect

answers and having limited knowledge of events beyond 2021. It has also been found to have an

algorithmic bias in its training data and a preference for longer answers from human reviewers.

As of December 2022, it has not been allowed to express any political opinion, and research

suggests it has a pro-environmental, left-libertarian orientation (Hartmann et al., 2023).

ChatGPT’s ability to write computer programs, as well as create music, poetry, and other written

works has made it a valuable tool for artists, writers, and programmers (Edwards, 2022; Heilweil,

2022). Similarly, its ability to answer test questions and provide information on various topics has

also made it a helpful resource for both students and academic researchers (Jiao et al., 2023;

Rudolph et al., 2023). Additionally, its ability to remember previous prompts in a conversation

has made it a unique tool for personalized therapy and counselling (Roose, 2022). Despite these
various challenges, the potential benefits of ChatGPT and other advanced AI language models

are significant. As technology advances, ChatGPT and similar models will likely play a growing

role in education, medicine, and also in art. As such, researchers, developers, and policymakers

must work together to address the limitations and challenges of these systems, whilst leveraging

their many significant benefits in order to improve human life and the world in which we live

(Vincent, 2022a). ChatGPT caused a stir upon its initial release due to its wide-ranging

capabilities, leading to both positive and negative reactions. People from various fields,

including journalists, academics, programmers, and business leaders, expressed their various

views on the chatbot. Roose (2022) referred to ChatGPT as “the best artificial intelligence

chatbot ever released to the public,” whilst Lock (2022) praised the chatbot for its ability to

produce “detailed” and “human-like” text. It is also found that its generated text was on par with

a good student’s work and noted that academia would have significant challenges to face in the

future (Hern, 2022). The Atlantic Magazine recognized ChatGPT as part of the “generative-AI

eruption” in its “Breakthroughs of the Year” for 2022, stating that it could significantly impact

upon the way in which we work, think, and understand human creativity (Thompson, 2022).

Concerns have been raised about the tendency of ChatGPT to produce “hallucinated” responses

(Lakshmanan, 2022). ChatGPT was also compared to a “stochastic parrot” (Mannix, 2022). As a

result, the question-and-answer website Stack Overflow banned the use of ChatGPT for

generating answers due to the factually ambiguous nature of its responses (Vincent, 2022b), and

the International Conference on Machine Learning also banned the undocumented use of

ChatGPT or other large language models in submitted papers (Vincent, 2023). The Guardian

news organization questioned the trustworthiness of information on the internet following the

release of ChatGPT and called for government regulation of AI (The Guardian, 2022).
 ChatGPT and Education

Since the release of the ChatGPT chatbot, it has generated both admiration and concern amongst

educators. Academics have begun to share their predictions about the capabilities and potential

consequences of the program due to its ability to effectively perform tasks such as writing

articles, answering complex questions, translating languages with near-perfect accuracy, solving

mathematical formulas in the sciences, as well as producing programming code, and

summarizing books (Aydın & Karaarslan, 2022; Jiao et al., 2023; Lund & Ting, 2023; Zhai, 2022).

As a result, the program has been subjected to exams in fields such as law, pharmacy, medicine,

and language education, and overall has received scores better than that of an average student

(Choi et al., 2023; Huh, 2023; Nisar & Aslam, 2023; Qadir, 2022). This has led to concerns among

academics that students may opt to utilize ChatGPT to plagiarize, engage in fraudulent activities

in their assignments, and to pass off generated academic writing as their own (Baker, 2000;

Rudolph et al., 2023). This itself has created another dilemma and sparked debates on whether or

not ChatGPT and other chatbots in the future can or should be used for the purposes of creating

text. Whether the use of such chatbots is deemed ethically correct or not has also begun to make

people think (Rudolph et al., 2023). Legal texts have even been produced regarding whether or

not written works sourced from ChatGPT can be considered personal work (Güçlütürk, 2022).

While ChatGPT may quickly generate ideas, students should prioritize considering their peers'

ideas, especially in collaborative activities. Brainstorming, as a teaching approach for

exchanging diverse ideas, might be underestimated. Collaborating with fellow students is crucial

for developing social skills and enhancing critical thinking in an academic setting. Working with

others to exchange ideas improves communication skills, encourages creativity, and leads to

great brainstorming sessions. (De Jesus, F. 2024) The impact of ChatGPT on academia has also
been a topic of significant interest to various scholars and researchers. It is stated that the full

extent of ChatGPT’s influence on academic writing, particularly in application essays, has yet to

be fully understood (Karp, 2023). On the other hand, it is acknowledged that use of ChatGPT by

students to outsource their writing may raise concerns among educators (Bushard, 2023). To

address the potential issue of academic plagiarism facilitated by AI writing tools like ChatGPT,

Tian, a Princeton University student, developed a program called “GPTZero” to determine the

proportion of AI-generated text in any given piece of writing (Mitchell, 2022; Stern, 2022). The

New York City Department of Education has taken the precautionary measure of restricting

access to ChatGPT on its public-school Internet and associated devices (Allen, 2022; Rosalsky &

Peaslee, 2023). As a result, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about a

significant transformation across various sectors, with education being no exception. Owing to

their capacity to reshape how students acquire knowledge and educators impart instruction, AI-

driven tools such as ChatGPT, OpenAI’s cutting-edge natural language processing model, have

attracted considerable interest in recent times (e.g., Aydın & Karaarslan, 2022; Jiao et al., 2023;

Lund & Ting, 2023; Zhai, 2022).

The learners of Grade 10 SP-ICT performed well in their Academics when using ChatGPT, A lot

of students use ChatGPT now a days and it has affected their Academic performance, this study

focuses on the effectivity of using ChatGPT on Academic performance of Grade 10 SP-ICT in

Canaan East National High School. This Study seeks to answer the following questions:

1.) What are the demographic profile of Grade 10 SP – ICT?

1.1 Sex

1.2 Age

1.3 GPA.

2.) Are there significant differences in academic performance between students who frequently

use ChatGPT and those who do not?

3.) What challenges do students face when using ChatGPT as an educational tool, and how do

these challenges affect their learning outcomes?

This study is very important to different stakeholders in the school system:

For Students. By using ChatGPT and other AI technologies, this study will help 10th graders

better understand how using these resources can either improve or hurt their academic

achievement. It will provide understanding on the possible advantages of utilizing these

technologies for homework completion, studying, and improving learning techniques.

For Teachers. The results will help teachers understand how ChatGPT affects student

performance and learning. In order to improve learning results, teachers can use this

information to advise students on appropriate usage and integrate AI tools into their lesson plans.

For Educational Institutions. School administrators and policymakers can use the results to

make informed decisions about integrating AI tools like ChatGPT into the curriculum. It may

also influence the development of guidelines on responsible use of AI technologies in schools.

For Researchers. The study will contribute to the growing body of research on AI in education.

It will provide a basis for future studies on the role of technology in learning and its broader

effects on student performance across different educational levels.

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

This conceptual framework examines how demographic factors (age, sex, and GPA) and the

frequency of ChatGPT usage (independent variables) influence the challenges encountered when

using ChatGPT (intervening variable). It further investigates how these challenges impact

academic performance (dependent variable). The framework suggests that a student's

demographic profile and their interaction with ChatGPT shape the challenges they face, which

subsequently affect their academic outcomes.

ChatGPT – Refers to the artificial intelligence that most of the students use to help them in their

school works or any extracurricular activities.

SP–ICT – A section for the Special program on Information and Communications Technology.

GPA – Grade point average

Research Design

The study will employ a descriptive-correlational research design to investigate the relationship

between the use of ChatGPT and the academic performance of Grade 10 SP-ICT students. This

design is appropriate because it allows for the collection of quantitative data to describe students’

usage patterns of ChatGPT, while also exploring any correlations between the frequency and

context of ChatGPT use and academic outcomes. The study will gather both quantitative and

qualitative data through surveys and focus group discussions to provide a comprehensive

understanding of the impact of ChatGPT on students' learning experiences.

Data Gathering Procedure

The data collection process will begin with the recruitment of participants from a selected high

school offering the Grade 10 SP-ICT program. After obtaining the necessary consent from school

authorities, students will be invited to participate in the study. The primary data collection tool

will be a survey administered to all participants, aimed at assessing their usage of ChatGPT as an

educational tool. The survey will also gather information on their academic performance in

subjects like Math, Science, and ICT, focusing on self-reported metrics. Following the survey, a

subset of participants will be selected for focus group discussions to gain deeper insights into

their experiences with ChatGPT and its perceived impact on their academic performance. These

discussions will further explore how students integrate ChatGPT into their learning, any

challenges encountered, and their overall assessment of its usefulness in their studies.
 Research Instruments

The research instruments will consist of two primary tools: a structured survey and a focus group

discussion guide. The survey will include Likert-scale questions designed to quantify ChatGPT

usage and its correlation with academic performance. It will address how frequently students use

ChatGPT, the specific academic tasks they use it for (e.g., homework assistance, project creation),

and their self-reported academic outcomes. The focus group discussion guide will complement

the survey by facilitating more in-depth conversations with selected participants. Key themes in

the discussions will include students’ perceptions of ChatGPT’s effectiveness, challenges faced

while using it, and its influence on their study habits. By employing both instruments, the study

aims to provide a detailed understanding of the role ChatGPT plays in the academic performance

of Grade 10 SP-ICT students.

Scope and Delimitation

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectivity of using ChatGpt on the academic

performance. This study will be focused on the students while using ChatGpt that affects their

academic performance. The respondents of this study will be the Grade 10 SP–ICT with a total of

27 students. To gather the data, each respondent will be given a set of a standard survey

questionnaire to answer. The study will be conducted in Canaan East National High School in

Rizal, Nueva Ecija during the Second Quarter, School Year 2024–2025.
 Data Analysis

The quantitative data from the surveys will be analyzed using descriptive and correlational

statistics. Descriptive analysis will summarize how frequently students use ChatGPT and for

which academic tasks (e.g., homework, projects). Central tendency measures (mean, median)

will describe self-reported academic performance in subjects like Math, Science, and ICT.

Pearson’s correlation will then be used to examine the relationship between ChatGPT usage

frequency and academic performance. If necessary, Spearman’s correlation will be used for

nonnormal data. Cross-tabulation will also explore how ChatGPT use for specific subjects relates

to performance, helping identify any significant trends.