Using GenAI in educational research. With Jasper Roe and Stephen Gow
Today we take a critical look at the promises and pitfalls of using GenAI in educational research. I'm joined by Jasper Roe, Assistant Professor in Digital Pedagogies at Durham University, and Stephen Gow, former Leverhulme Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University and lead author of the Student Experiences on Generative AI Project.
We discuss Jasper's recent book, How to Use Generative AI in Educational Research, and Stephen's work on an AI assisted scoping review. We talk through the importance of foundational knowledge, how we talk to students about research, opportunities for classroom-based scholarship, efficiency trade-offs, concerns around AI detection, the need for 'humans in the loop', and other topics.
Key reading
Gow S, Illingworth S (2026), "Dynamic tensions: an AI-assisted critical scoping review of university students' qualitative experiences of GenAI". Artificial Intelligence in Education, Vol. 2 No. 1 pp. 67–89, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/AIIE-06-2025-0151
Roe, J. (2025). How to Use Generative AI in Educational Research. Cambridge: CUP. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009675338
Texts referred to in the conversation
Jansson, D.G. & Smith, S.M. (1991) ‘Design fixation’, Design Studies, 12(1), pp. 3–11. doi: 10.1016/0142-694X(91)90003-F.
Perkins M, Roe J (2024), "Academic publisher guidelines on AI usage: A ChatGPT supported thematic analysis". F1000Research, Vol. 12 No. 1398, doi: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.142411.2
Pinochet, L.H.C., Miadaira Hamza, K. & Dwivedi, Y.K. (2026) ‘Editorial: Generative AI, human authorship and the transformation of scholarly communication’, Revista de Gestao, 33, pp. 31–40. doi: 10.1108/REGE-04-2026-0058.
Your Undivided Attention (2025) ‘AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure’ [Podcast]. Available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-and-cancer-why-superintelligence-wont-get-us-to-a-cure/id1460030305?i=1000764657602 (Accessed: 19 August 2026).
Guest bios
Dr Jasper Roe is a leading scholar in educational technology, artificial intelligence, and academic integrity. He has worked internationally, holding senior leadership positions at universities in Vietnam and Singapore, where he spent over a decade. His mixed-methods research is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing on applied linguistics, corpus and discourse analysis, sociology, and anthropology. Jasper is the author of How to Use Generative AI in Educational Research (Cambridge University Press) and has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles in prestigious outlets. He is best known as co-creator of the AI Assessment Scale (AIAS) and is a regularly invited keynote speaker at international conferences and for intergovernmental organisations, including for UNESCO.
Some of his work in news media is available at the below links:
Channel News Asia https://www.channelnewsasia.com/author/jasper-roe
Times Higher Education Campus https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/authors/jasper-roe
For academic publications please visit his Google Scholar
Connect on Linkedin
Dr Stephen Gow was the Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement (DLTE) at Edinburgh Napier University. During this role he led the Student Experiences on Generative AI Project (StudentXGenAI), this project carried out the StudentXGenAI Survey with a response rate of over 7,000 students at UK institutions and interviews with students across the UK in addition to integrating GenAI into the research process. He is an expert on academic integrity, assessment and GenAI, and the Chair of the Northern Academic Integrity Forum. He is now associate staff with Department of Education, University of York and available for consultation and research projects related to GenAI in education. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via Linkedin: Stephen Gow | LinkedIn
Corrections and clarifications
At 44:05, Phil mentions a Linkedin post by Andrew Maynard which describes the production of an academic article from a single-sentence prompt using Claude Opus. Please note: the model used was actually Claude Fable, and the prompt, although short, was more than one sentence.
Stephen mentions a paper that cited Jasper about declarations negatively impacting people's trust of research - actually, it is not Jasper but a different Rowe. Full reference for this paper is:
Ngwenyama, O. & Rowe, F. (2024) ‘Should we collaborate with AI to conduct literature reviews? Changing epistemic values in a flattening world’, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 25(1), pp. 37–181. doi: 10.17705/1jais.00869.
Timecodes
00:00 Introduction
02:10 Jasper’s background and introduction to his book
03:42 Jasper’s Book Focus
05:23 Stephen Gow on GenAI in the scoping review
10:31 Is GenAI helpful, neutral or a hindrance?
14:29 How has Jasper’s approach to ed research changed?
19:05 Impacts on the way we teach research
22:03 The importance of foundational knowledge
26:53 GenAI for teacher researchers
28:38 Efficiency in literature reviews
30:20 Limits of auto reviews
31:40 The productivity paradox
34:33 Efficiency tradeoffs
35:47 The case for slow scholarship
41:21 Transparent peer reviews
44:06 The futility of detection
48:54 Preprints and open feedback
50:19 Will we still need humans in the loop?
58:55 Future research plans