Survey Finds Students Fear AI Greatly More Than Teachers & Admins

A recent study reveals that students harbor significantly more apprehension about artificial intelligence in education than teachers and administrators. While educators tend to view AI as a tool to enhance learning and streamline tasks, students worry about its potential to undermine academic integrity, reduce human interaction, and devalue their skills. These findings suggest a disconnect in perceptions and highlight the importance of addressing student concerns through education, transparent policies, and collaborative AI integration strategies.

A global report published Tuesday indicates that secondary and higher education students express greater worries about AI’s effects on their learning than do educators and institutional leaders. Surveying 3,500 participants, including students, teachers, and administrators across seven countries, the research revealed that 64% of students are uneasy about AI in classrooms, compared with half of instructors and 41% of administrators.

Both students and teachers cited overdependence on AI and the risk of eroding critical thinking as their principal concerns, whereas administrators primarily flagged data privacy and security vulnerabilities, according to the Vanson Bourne study commissioned by Turnitin. Patti West-Smith, Turnitin’s Senior Director for Customer Engagement, remarked that while student apprehension wasn’t unexpected, she was struck by how deeply they felt it, surpassing the worries of both instructors and administrators.

Clinical communication professor Karen Kovacs North from USC’s Annenberg School noted that although students employ AI for assignments, their anxiety underscores a growing recognition that outsourcing problem-solving undermines their critical-thinking abilities. Nearly half of students worry about becoming too dependent on AI, and a majority fear that such reliance will weaken their analytical skills, West-Smith explained, since offloading reading and writing to machines can short-circuit the thinking those activities demand.

Kaveh Vahdat of RiseOpp argued that leaning on AI diminishes the “cognitive friction” essential for evaluating assumptions and forming independent judgments, while Ryan Trattner of StudyFetch likened critical thinking to a muscle that atrophies when students no longer practice it. An overwhelming 95% of respondents agreed AI is being misused, prompting Turnitin’s Chief Product Officer Annie Chechitelli to emphasize the need for transparency in student writing to balance AI’s benefits with academic integrity safeguards.

Some educators suggest in-class writing exercises to deter misuse, but Northeastern journalism professor Dan Kennedy cautioned against a defensive teaching stance, preferring to build trust and authentic samples rather than assume dishonesty. Faculty face the challenge of designing assignments resistant to AI shortcuts, USC’s North added, describing the effort as tiring but necessary to ensure individual creativity remains central to coursework.

SmartTech Research analyst Mark Vena believes clear policies, ethics training, and early AI literacy can curb abuse, encouraging instructors to model responsible use and frame AI as a learning aid rather than a cheat sheet. While many organizations anticipate an AI-savvy workforce, two-thirds of students feel they shortcut their own learning with AI, and half are unsure how to harness its full potential, according to the survey.

Cato Institute fellow Matt Mittelsteadt recommends that students tap into online tutorials and specialized AI applications, like machine translation, to deepen their skills and access diverse resources. Vena added that students should use AI to enhance brainstorming and feedback without relinquishing active engagement and reflective thinking throughout their studies.

David Bader of NJIT argues that this moment calls for rethinking education itself, shifting from rote memorization to cultivating higher-order reasoning that dovetails with AI, and redefining assessments to measure what truly matters. He insists that schools must champion thoughtful AI integration, neither blindly optimistic nor overly resistant, to nurture human creativity, ethics, and interpersonal strengths that AI can amplify but never replace.

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Source: technewsworld‍