Use of ChatGPT as a supplemental learning tool in mathematics

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly emphasized to supplement individual pursuits of knowledge in today’s learner-centric educational paradigm, the development of chat generative pre-trained transformer (ChatGPT) by OpenAI has marked a significant milestone. This AI system, designed to generate human-like dialogue and written responses, presents an exciting application in mathematics education. As accumulating research focuses on the experimentation and content analysis of ChatGPT’s responses, this study explored the perspectives and experiences of secondary mathematics pre-service teachers with the tool in their mathematics learning. Employing a mixed-method approach, the study combined quantitative surveys with 91 respondents and qualitative interviews with 20 participants, to evaluate their perceptions of ChatGPT’s ease of use, relative advantage, compatibility, and intention to use it, grounded in the diffusion of innovation theory, connectivism learning theory, technology acceptance model, and community of inquiry framework. Based on statistical and thematic analysis, the pre-service teachers exhibited a positive perception of using ChatGPT as a supplemental learning tool in mathematics, noting it as very easy to use, beneficial for efficient learning and task completion, and cognitive development, and compatible with learning citing its adaptability to learners’ needs and demands in education. However, challenges and issues such as occasional inaccuracies, functional limitations, the risk of over-reliance, and academic integrity were noted, emphasizing that ChatGPT is a valuable supplementary tool in mathematics education provided that it is used responsibly and in balance with other learning resources.