Verification of Search Queries of Artificial Intelligence Systems as a Means of Initiating Cognitive Activity of Students in a General Education Physics Course

The purpose of the study. The problem of initiating students’ cognitive activity is currently acquiring ever-increasing importance. Understanding the practical impossibility of transmitting in the learning process the volumes of information necessary to form a wide range of required competencies forces us to look for new didactic approaches to achieving the goal, including a focus on the development of cognitive activity. The most important tool for this can be artificial intelligence systems, the scope of application of which has been rapidly expanding in the last two or three years. However, in the educational process, the use of artificial intelligence is not perceived positively by everyone. There are well-known discussions about the unethical nature of performing educational tasks using ChatGPT or similar systems. The search for acceptable and effective solutions was set by the authors of this paper as the main goal of the study. Another goal was to attempt to develop and introduce into teaching practice at the general education level a new non-traditional method based on the possibility of initiating students’ cognitive activity through artificial intelligence systems. The third objective was to justify the choice of physics as an academic discipline among some others to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed teaching method in a general education physics course. Materials and methods. The material (object) of the study was the process of teaching physics at the general education level in terms of problems that usually cause difficulties for students. Such difficulties primarily include issues related to solving physics tasks, evaluating the results obtained, understanding the need to rely in each specific case on certain physical theories and patterns, as well as understanding the reasonableness of using formulas expressing physical laws. The main general empirical method of research was the observation of various stages of the educational process. The general methods of theoretical research included an analysis of scientific literature on methods for developing students’ cognitive activity, as well as an assessment of the educational opportunities of the range of artificial intelligence systems available to students, with the development of recommendations for their practical application. A special method, characteristic of pedagogical sciences, was a pedagogical modeling of work methods at different stages of the educational process. Results. For the first time in the system of pedagogical knowledge, a new non-traditional method of initiating students’ cognitive activity in a general education physics course based on verification of the results of search queries of artificial intelligence systems has been proposed, formulated, developed, described and tested. A methodology has been developed for working with students from the stage of setting a task by the teacher, the student’s awareness of its essential and insignificant features through the repeated formulation of search queries to the artificial intelligence system with subsequent analysis of the answers received, to the most important thing - verification of the results of work with the artificial intelligence system and substantiated conclusion about the solution to the problem. The stages of the research and the proposed methodology are illustrated in detail with examples of solving problems from the general education physics course. The results of the experimental work already at this stage demonstrated the effectiveness of initiating the cognitive activity of students in the general education course of physics through the verification of the results of search queries of artificial intelligence systems. Conclusion. The use of computer technology and its software in general education is constantly changing the direction of its development vector. From enthusiastic expectations to a legislative ban on the use of “…mobile radiotelephone communications during educational classes in the development of primary, basic and secondary general education programs…” [1]. We hope that this applies to computing equipment only in terms of its use in the “mobile radiotelephone communication” mode. The ban does not apply to all other cases, including work with artificial intelligence systems. This is where we should expect the greatest success.