Use of ChatGPT as a Virtual Mentor on K-12 Students Learning Science in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

• DOI: 10.3390/knowledge4040031
• Publication Date: 2024-12-05T13:33:51Z
• Authors: Rafael Castañeda; Andrea Martínez-G...; Laura Mercadé; Víctor Jesús Gómez; Teresa Mengual; Francisco Javier ...; Miguel Sinusia Lo...; Juan Navarro Arenas; Ángela Barreda; Maribel Gómez; Elena Pinilla-Cie...; David Ortiz de Zá...
• Keywords: virtual mentor; 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; ChatGPT; Electronic computers. Computer science; K-12; education 4.0; science education; QA75.5-76.95; artificial intelligence

Education 4.0 arises to provide citizens with the technical/digital competencies and cognitive/interpersonal skills demanded by Industry 4.0. New technologies drive this change, though time-independent learning remains a challenge, because students might face a lack of support, advice and surveillance when teachers are unavailable. This study proposes complementing presential lessons with online learning driven by ChatGPT, applied as an educational tool able to mentor K-12 students learning science at home. First, ChatGPT’s performance in the field of K-12 science is evaluated, scoring A (9.3/10 in 2023, and 9.7/10 in 2024) and providing detailed, analytic, meaningful, and human-like answers. Then, an empirical interventional study is performed to assess the impact of using ChatGPT as a virtual mentor on real K-12 students. After the intervention, the grades of students in the experimental group improved by 30%, and 70% of students stated a positive perception of the AI, suggesting a positive impact of the proposed educational approach. After discussion, the study concludes ChatGPT might be a useful educational tool able to provide K-12 students learning science with the functional and social/emotional support they might require, democratizing a higher level of knowledge acquisition and promoting students’ autonomy, security and self-efficacy. The results probe ChatGPT’s remarkable capacity (and immense potential) to assist teachers in their mentoring tasks, laying the foundations of virtual mentoring and paving the way for future research aimed at extending the study to other areas and levels, obtaining a more realistic view of AI’s impact on education.