Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about ChatGBT. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the GPT in ChatGPT is an acronym for Generative Pre-trained Transformer (do not worry – I had to google that). ChatGPT is a chatbot launched by OpenAI some four months ago. I wonder how this will impact education, so I thought I’d give it a go. I registered, opened an account and ready I was. I asked the ChatGPT to do the following task: Lesson plan cell structure IGCSE. In 35 seconds, the lesson plan was complete with lesson objectives, materials needed, an introduction (5 min), direct instructions (20 min), guided practice (15 min), independent practice (15 min), closure (5 min) and assessment. Each of the parts came with clear instructions, activities for the students and how they could be assessed. I asked it to do it again, and it created a different lesson plan with similar content.

I found this very impressive, so I asked for an annual lesson plan for IGCSE biology. Not a problem, a few seconds later it was ready. As far as I could see it was accurate as per the latest syllabus. I was on a roll now – I asked it how to teach mitosis to students in an interesting way. Out came an eight-point plan with clear instructions for the teacher. I asked how to improve academic performance in schools. Again, an eight-point plan with clear instructions, pretty much along the lines of what we are currently doing. You could argue that all these are simple tasks. Well, I then asked for an inclusion policy. In a matter of seconds, a structured, albeit short, document was ready. What about a newsletter to parents about discipline? Not an issue at all. Couldn’t have written it better myself.

Conclusion? A fantastic tool that can free up a lot of time for teachers if used efficiently and effectively.