How a Lecturer Struggles with ChatGPT

What began as curiosity about tools like ChatGPT has grown into a deeper concern: how do educators ensure students are truly learning when AI can generate convincing answers at the click of a button? In a candid interview, De Zwart reflects on how AI is reshaping student behaviour and the very foundations of teaching. One example: a student who submitted an impressive reflection on a tech event only to later admit he hadn’t attended it, but had used AI to generate the entire piece based on a transcript.

 

“We’ve designed an education system that rewards outputs,” De Zwart says, “but AI now lets students produce those outputs without engaging in the actual process.” With essays increasingly replaced by oral assessments, and assignments designed to bypass AI assistance, he asks whether it’s time to fundamentally rethink education itself.

Rather than banning AI or reverting to “schoolish” methods like handwritten tests, De Zwart sees a different path: more complex, open-ended assignments that embrace the real-world messiness of problem solving and invite students to fail safely, reflect, and try again.

 

 

Read the full story (in Dutch) to learn more about Hans de Zwart’s experiences and why he believes AI may ultimately help us rediscover the core purpose of education.