How to apply AI in teaching? - Part 1: AI supports lesson preparation and test creation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has penetrated every corner of schools, especially the teaching activities of lecturers and the learning of students. How do teachers apply AI and how can AI bring the best results for teaching?

A math lesson of teachers and students of class 9/6 at Nguyen Du Secondary School, Ben Thanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City. In the photo: students do exercises through the Quizzi game of teacher Dang Huu Tri - Photo: N.HUNG

"I happened to read a research article, in which the survey results with high school students on the use of AI showed that a large proportion of students surveyed underestimated the level of AI use of teachers. I myself was also deceived by students using AI to do the assigned work. That urged me to learn and use AI at least as well as Gen Z students" - a teacher in Hanoi shared.

Using AI is still at a simple level

At the training course for Hanoi teachers on applying AI in building school education plans, supporting the organization of teaching subjects, experiential activities... organized by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training in collaboration with the Hanoi School for Training of Education Staff in October 2025, many teachers and managers said they have used AI for their work. But most of them have only used AI for simple tasks.

"Teachers have used AI to help prepare lessons, create test questions, and handle other professional tasks such as writing reports, giving presentations, etc. But many people only write commands once and then use the results without knowing how to "communicate" with AI or describe in detail what they want to get better results.

"If teachers themselves do not have high expectations for themselves in setting goals for building teaching and educational plans, it is difficult to expect AI to produce good products," commented a lecturer of the training class. She believes that teachers today really need support to improve their skills in using AI.

According to this lecturer: "From being afraid to apply and avoiding, many teachers may turn to depending on AI when they only stop at simple operations without the skills to apply and master AI. Another important thing is that without qualifications, teachers will find it difficult to lead, orient and control students in using AI."

Right at the above training session, there were some young teachers who confidently said that they only needed to use ChatGPT to request "composing a lesson plan for a specific subject content" to get usable results.

Discussing this simple method, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh - Principal of Hanoi School of Education Training, who directly trains teachers - said that because the data source used by AI is too large, it can produce results that are not close to teaching requirements. Therefore, teachers need to provide a centralized data source and detailed descriptions.

For example, to prepare a lesson, you need to have the program content, the requirements that students need to achieve, and textbooks. In addition, you need to "communicate" with AI to raise the level of requirements, close to each group of students. These are the skills that teachers must master. In the process of honing their skills, teachers also create smarter AIs.

To exploit AI effectively

In Ho Chi Minh City, a leader of the Department of Education and Training said: "Up to now, most teachers in primary, secondary and high schools have been trained in applying AI in teaching from basic to advanced. However, the level of implementation in practice depends on each subject group and each teacher. Most teachers use AI to build digital lectures, simulation software, and suggest online exercise systems for students...".

According to Mr. Dang Huu Tri - head of the math group at Nguyen Du Secondary School, Ben Thanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City: "We have been trained in applying AI in teaching since 2023. Since then, we have continued to receive advanced training, updated knowledge and skills as well as gained a lot of experience on this issue.

I often use AI to create videos of math problems being read to students; create knowledge review applications with integrated games, software to support testing and evaluating students' levels... These tasks previously took a lot of time for teachers, but now with AI support, it is more convenient, increasing students' ability to concentrate, making them more interested and easier to absorb knowledge."

Similarly, Ms. Le Thi Phuong, deputy head of the math-IT group at Saigon Practical High School, Cho Quan Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, also said that she often uses AI to design the warm-up part in each lesson, exercises, knowledge review... with interaction to create excitement for students.

"After more than two years of applying AI to teaching, we now consider AI an indispensable tool and reference source in the teaching process," Ms. Phuong shared.

Meanwhile, Master Tran Nguyen Tuan Huy - head of the literature group at Tran Boi Co Secondary School, Cho Lon Ward, Ho Chi Minh City - informed that AI has supported teachers in teaching literature very effectively. Especially in designing illustrative images for content, characters or context when teaching work analysis. Thanks to that, the lecture becomes more intuitive and vivid instead of having to spend time searching for available images on the Internet like before.

"In addition, in the application and creativity of teaching activities, AI also supports teachers by giving many suggestions or concretizing activities from ideas. For example, AI can suggest language games, creative topics, role-playing situations or topics for criticism and debate.

Thanks to that, I save a lot of time in planning, have more rich and flexible ideas in organizing lessons. Through that, students are also more interested and proactive in receiving lessons" - Mr. Huy said.

However, Mr. Huy also admitted some existing difficulties: "The physical facilities among educational units are uneven, not all classrooms in all schools have enough equipment or stable internet connection.

Not to mention that students' ability to understand and use AI is not equal. Many students are still confused, but there are students who are proficient in using AI and even abuse AI. Some students depend on AI, rely on AI to handle learning tasks instead of thinking for themselves. This reality comes from the fact that students are not equipped with the skills to use AI properly and effectively.

Mr. Huy said: "Exploiting AI requires teachers to have operational skills, command design and deep expertise. Because the content provided by AI is sometimes inaccurate or not suitable for the students' level. Therefore, teachers must know how to select and distinguish right from wrong to adjust. In my opinion, AI is only truly effective when used properly, with clear orientation for both learners and teachers."

Hanoi teachers in a live training session on using AI to prepare lessons according to the guidelines of the 2018 general education program - Photo: V.HA

"Advisor" through the night

Ms. Nguyen Kim Anh - Phan Huy Chu High School (Dong Da, Hanoi) - shared that current Gen Z students are reserved in asking teachers directly but really like to "text". Sometimes at 2-3 am they still text to ask questions and ask teachers for advice. If they skip interacting once, they will not want to ask anymore. But if they are constantly answering all night, teachers will not have the energy.

"We have a chatbox to support. Teachers upload data including lesson content, test requirements, answers to questions that students often have... and the chatbox will help teachers automatically respond when students ask questions," said Ms. Kim Anh.

Applications are increasingly open

In fact, some schools and some high school teachers have now gone beyond the common limits of the majority to reach more diverse applications. Mr. Tran Van Huy - teacher at Phan Huy Chu High School (Dong Da, Hanoi) - shared that with the specificity of physics, there are many things that can be solved by applying AI, such as creating physics simulations, software and learning products using AI.

"Not only teachers but also students can create physical simulations according to teachers' requirements. To do this, students need to have programming thinking and understand the nature of physics to express commands for AI to understand. This process gives different results, depending on the understanding and skills of students, which teachers can look at to evaluate the efforts of students" - Mr. Huy shared.

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VINH HA - HOANG HUONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ung-dung-ai-trong-day-hoc-ra-sao-ky-1-ai-ho-tro-soan-bai-ra-de-kiem-tra-20251024084243658.htm