In a digitally directed world, artificial intelligence (AI) has become the latest technology that will save or condemn the planet that you are talking about. Remember when the phones (those who hung on the wall) were nicknamed as privacy invaders? Even radio, television and VHS recordings were feared at the start of their existence. Artificial intelligence is no different, but how can we relieve the minds of educators who find it difficult to embrace new innovation in emerging technologies? A change in the fundamental state of mind of educators and learners will be of vital importance as AI becomes more and more common. To guide this transformative learning process, critical thinking will become invaluable goods.
The critical thinking model developed by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder is pragmatic and promotes the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate in AI. Critical thinking is defined by Paul and Elder as “the art of analyzing and evaluating thought processes in order to improve them” (Paul and Elder 2020, 9). The key is to teach your students the means to improve their reflection and the use of the Paul and Elder model can be an effective tool.
Navigate the disorienting dilemma
As we reason through this innovative technology, we question truth and reality. Teaching students to critically analyze the information generated from AI chatbots will become necessary for a progression company. The determination of fiction will be a competence that dedicated educators will form their students to exploit the work they finish.
Mezirow (1994, 224) argued that a transformative learning experience begins with a disorienting dilemma which obliges an individual to question his understanding of the previous hypotheses by critically reflecting, validating critical reflection with a insight and acting on new information. Like many, I guess, I thought that artificial intelligence was a eccentric concept that would only be real in films; However, AI is here and models in large language, such as Chat-Gpt and Gemini, will only become more sophisticated over time. I also realized that once I was exposed to the Paul and Elder model for critical thinking at the Higher School, I was ignorant. I had my moment of transformation when I realized that critical thinking was more complex than I thought and that I would need to intensify my thinking game if I wanted to become an advanced thinker. Artificial intelligence will even challenge the most confident thinkers. The determination of fiction will be the disorienting dilemma that will lead us in this transformative journey. As a Educators, three strategies that we can use to support this transformation with students are to intensify our thinking game, to model critical thinking and to use AI for our advantage.
Intensify your thinking game
An advanced thinker poses not only questions to others, but concentrates inside. Understanding why behind reasoning, recognizing personal prejudices and hypotheses, and assessing the perspectives of others is the key to developing critical thinking skills. The reason why you and your students choose to use AI should be clear and intentional. AI is a tool that produces instant solutions. The resulting details of the AI must be analyzed for precision, logic and bias. The results must be compared to several sources to ensure that the information, the conclusions and the implications are precise and complete. The practice of these strategies promotes the development of intellectual virtues, such as intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy and intellectual integrity.
Critical thinking model
As educators, we serve leaders. In the end, our students admire us and use our advice in their learning. By modeling critical thinking with students, you open the way to promoting intentional questioning, ethical principles and reflection practices. The beginning is to change the objective of your teaching of expectations that students regurgite information to focus on more difficult and stimulating content that promotes thought. AI can be a useful tool for finding ideas, helping to shape the course plans and the design of activities, but the real work will come from the design of authentic questions that students can be formed to pose independently of what AI generates, like:
- How can I check the validity and precision of this information?
- Does the answer represent logical and in-depth details?
- Is the information precise, significant and relevant to the knowledge I seek?
- Are the perspectives that differ from mine represented or can I recognize biases in information?
- What other questions could be asked to dive more deeply and more concise in information?
Use AI for your advantage
The generation of ideas for activities or course plans, creating sections and helping basic writing tasks are three ways to start easily with an AI chatbot. If the exit is not what you expect or is incomplete, continue to give the chatbot more information to drive the chatbot to produce the desired result. Once you start to train with an AI chatbot, obtaining your desired results will become second nature.
The use of learning results as well as the basis of an AI provides AI with the information necessary to generate a secondary activity or course plan with objectives, timed components, implementation suggestions, a list of materials, a closure and monitoring ideas for activity. Try to type a statement in an AI chatbot, like chatgpt or gemini, and be amazed at magic. When you formulate your investigation, do not forget to start with the final objective in mind and describe at AI the exit you want. For example, type “use this learning result to create an activity: (add a learning result)”. The AI will generate a complete activity with all the bells and the whistles.
The development of sections can be a heavy process; Consequently, the use of AI to generate a section for a project that you have shed and tears in creation is a very simple process in time. Ask the AI to generate a section according to the information and instructions you give to your students. If the generated section is not the right style or in the right format, simply refocus the Ai chatbot by being more explicit in your instructions. For example, you may have to be as specific as “create an analytical section with 100, 90, 80, 70 and 0 as performance levels using the following expectations for assignment (glue directions and results). As always, use your critical thinking skills to assess the section and modify it to best meet your needs before sharing it with students.
Use AI to help you generate clearer and more concise messages. When creating an e-mail, the transmission of students or writing in general, a quick and easy way to use AI to help you are to give the command “Improve this sound” and plop in your message. When you teach your students to use AI, ask them to question the generated exit. For example, “why is this statement clearer and more concise than my original thought” or “what can I learn from how AI has changed my verbiage?” Focusing on the “why” of the information produced will be the key to promoting critical thinking with your students.
AI is an ingenious and punchy but imperfect tool. The promotion of critical thinking with your students will help them develop the skills necessary to recognize the biases, inaccuracies and hallucinations of AI. With the practice of creating specific instructions and questioning the result, students will learn to trust themselves to defend the information generated by AI.
Dr. Tina Evans won his ed.d. In adult education at Capella University in 2025. With more than 25 years of experience in the field of education, it provides in -depth expertise in the design of the higher education program, technological integration and practices based on evidence for adult learners. Driven by a passion for critical thinking and a real commitment to support others, Dr. Evans continues to have a significant impact in his professional and personal spheres.
References
Mezirow, J. 1994. “Understand the theory of transformation.“” Adult education quarterly44 (4): 222-232. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07417136940440040333
Paul, Richard and Elder, Linda. 2020. The miniature guide of Critical thinking: concepts and tools, 8th ed. Rowman and Littlefield.
At Learnopoly, Finn has championed a mission to deliver unbiased, in-depth reviews of online courses that empower learners to make well-informed decisions. With over a decade of experience in financial services, he has honed his expertise in strategic partnerships and business development, cultivating both a sharp analytical perspective and a collaborative spirit. A lifelong learner, Finn’s commitment to creating a trusted guide for online education was ignited by a frustrating encounter with biased course reviews.