Exploring Teachers’ Lived Experiences in Integrating ChatGPT in Classroom Practices

This research aimed to describe the lived experience of teachers in employing ChatGPT as a 21st-century teaching tool. Through a phenomenological approach, the research employed purposive sampling in choosing 10 key informants for the in-depth interview and eight participants for the focus group discussion. These participants from elementary and secondary level education are utilizing ChatGPT in their classroom teaching. A semi-structured tool was used to gather data through an in-depth interview. In addition, a focus group discussion was also conducted to both sets of participants. Thematic analysis was used to investigate the data collected through their experiences. The results indicated that teachers greatly valued ChatGPT as a learning tool since it offers creative solutions to meet the diverse needs of students and facilitated personalized learning for the teachers. However, although it is seen as a helpful tool, teachers perceived some of its answers to be inaccurate which then required cross-verification of its answers with other sources to ensure that information generated is accurate and appropriate to the classroom requirements. Thus, it is important to verify information to ensure the integrity of learning and remain in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 on guaranteeing quality education and sustainable learning. Although ChatGPT has proved to be a phenomenal and historic tool for current educators, it can only succeed by balancing its benefits with a sense of balanced judgment and control by humans to achieve its vision of quality education for everyone on an equal level. It is therefore recommended to conduct a rigorous study on the implication of using ChatGPT in classroom teaching, specifically highlighting its limitations based on the findings of this study.