GPT-4 as a Homework Tutor can Improve Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that GPT-4 can effectively serve as an interactive homework tutor for high-school students learning English, leading to improved engagement and learning outcomes in real-world educational settings.

Contribution

The paper introduces a scalable prompting strategy for GPT-4 to conduct interactive homework sessions with minimal content preparation, tested through a randomized controlled trial.

Findings

Significant improvement in grammar learning outcomes

Increased student engagement and satisfaction

High willingness to continue using GPT-4 tutoring

Abstract

This work contributes to the scarce empirical literature on LLM-based interactive homework in real-world educational settings and offers a practical, scalable solution for improving homework in schools. Homework is an important part of education in schools across the world, but in order to maximize benefit, it needs to be accompanied with feedback and followup questions. We developed a prompting strategy that enables GPT-4 to conduct interactive homework sessions for high-school students learning English as a second language. Our strategy requires minimal efforts in content preparation, one of the key challenges of alternatives like home tutors or ITSs. We carried out a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) in four high-school classes, replacing traditional homework with GPT-4 homework sessions for the treatment group. We observed significant improvements in learning outcomes, specifically a greater gain in grammar, and student engagement. In addition, students reported high levels of satisfaction with the system and wanted to continue using it after the end of the RCT.