Can AI support critical thinking?

[DrJuliannYoung]

Some of the newest research is bemoaning the fact that students are losing their critical thinking edge, allowing LLM to do the work for them- essentially offloading anything difficult to an LLM. I'm wondering what others are seeing? I can see it in 2 situations. 1. When students know nothing about the topic and 2. The topic is of very low importance to them.  In these situations, students are turning to their favorite LLM to do their heavy lifting. I'm not sold that their critical thinking takes a back seat, though. 

A study released by StudyFetch shows that when students use a purpose-built platform (a platform built for the purposes of using AI for education) they are more likely to use the platform for comprehension rather than higher-order critical thinking tasks. 80% of their interactions with the platform were at the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy, indicating that students were not using the platform for offloading critical thinking tasks. 

I love to know what instructors are seeing every day in the classroom. Are students losing the ability to discuss topics that they used to be able to do so fluently?

-Juliann

[AliaBarkzi]

Hello everyone,

As an ESL Instructor, I strongly believe that my students are very intelligent who come from all walks of life with a wealth of knowledge, but they lack the language skills to express themselves in any given field. With that being said, I have seen AI produced passages as homework, which I do  not think, they even understood because the language was very advanced.   However, AI can be a support to the language learners, if they are taught to use it as a tool, and not a replacement of their own ideas and reflections.  I  agree that if students are interested in the subject matter, they will not lose their critical thinking abilities, they might use it, if they lack the confidence in their own writing abilities.  If as instructors, we showcase AI as a tool to interact and understand difficult concepts, AI can be beneficial, but students need to understand the fine line between using it as a tool and replacing their own work to get by. 

Alia  

[DrJuliannYoung]

I fully agree. When GenAI is used as a tool and not a replacement, it can be invaluable. What the research is showing is that when a GenAI platform is built FOR students, they don't take those shortcuts, as opposed to any LLM. I think not only about HOW they use the tool, but WHAT tool they are using!
Juliann

[WilliamDehart]

Thank you for posting this Julian, as this is an excellent topic for discussion pertaining the student's use of AI in their assignments. 

It's interesting you note the study that the majority (80%) of the students utilize a LLM platform for comprehension - rather than "higher order critical thinking tasks". 

I believe it is the instructor's role to present the coursework in such a manner that it directs the students to utillize their critical thinking skills say for instance in analyzing a case study or presenting options to solve a problem encounterd by a business (I'm a business course instructor). The ground work in preparation to present solutions, could involve doing research (heavy lifting) utilizing LLM.  And perhaps the StudyFetch study results are precisely because student's are utilzing their own critical skills in their coursework rather than depending on LLM to do it for them- as most colleges discourage using AI for that critical thinking framework and can "smell out" the AI and fail the student. Consequently this explains why they students aren't utilizing the platform for offloading critical thinking tasks.

The college I work for encourages the use of AI for coursework- however there are other universities that discouarge it's use ( I know a IT instructor at a university that discourages the use of AI) so there needs to be a balance in how it is used as all trajectories indicate increased utilization in LLM in education as well as the other universes.

[MarkPGriffith]

William I agree with your thoughts as well as the original post by Dr. Young. First, I think discouraging the use of GenAI is a mistake. It is and will be a part of our students professional world. As of now that piece of the professional world is increasing at a rapid pace. Second, and every time do a PD presentation on our district I make this statement. I disagree that GenAI is detracting from students' critical thinking skills. It is incumbent on us as educators to deploy the GenAI tools available in such a way as to require students to do the critical thinking. GenAI is great at sorting through large amounts of data and generating ideas. Those ideas need to be critically evaluated by humans. Otherwise, we sacrifice our human ingenuity to microchips that despite their strengths don't live in the real world. 

I am not even sure it is how the tool that is built (rather designed for academic use or a general LLM). Maybe we the educators are more in danger of losing our critical thinking skills is we cannot structure assignments in such a way that allows students to use the tools that will be at their disposal in their professional lives, while still drawing out their critical thinking about the products that genAI tools produce. In this line of thought, let us not, as educators, be guilty of using GenAI produced results without doing our own critical thinking.