Styrian summer tutoring tackles AI’s learning challenge

Summer tutoring is entering its peak phase for around 20,000 school students in Styria, with many needing to learn how to study because artificial intelligence is often used for homework, ORF reports. Tutoring centres are also using AI in their programmes.

Mathematics is the most common reason students seek help. “Our rule of thumb is that two-thirds of all students come because of mathematics,” said Gerald Still, head of the Schülerhilfe centres in Leibnitz and Deutschlandsberg. German, English and other foreign languages follow.

Angelika Ratswohl, owner of Lernquadrat Graz-Geidorf, said students frequently need help with the basics of studying, including how to learn effectively, gain an overview of their work and organise it. “These learning-how-to-learn topics remain very important and are becoming even more important,” she said.

Still said many students use ChatGPT and similar tools without guidance to complete their homework. Although the systems may provide a calculation method, he said, this does not necessarily create a learning effect.

For this reason, one tutoring provider uses its own AI system, called Kira. The digital learning assistant is designed to explain concepts such as calculating circumference and using the Pythagorean theorem, rather than simply producing an answer.

Still believes fewer students facing resit examinations are seeking tutoring this year. Around 2,500 students are expected to take resit exams, with nearly half in mathematics.