AI and the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking

In today’s episode, we'll explore how generative AI tools can help facilitate critical thinking in the K–12 classroom. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#289 — AI and the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking

11 min
AVID Open Access

Paul Beckermann  0:01  

Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I'm your host, Paul Beckermann. 

Transition Music  0:05  

Check it out, check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Paul Beckermann  0:17  

The topic of today's episode is AI and the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking. Today's episode is part three in our series exploring AI and the 4 Cs. In this episode, I'll be focusing on critical thinking. Outside of cheating, one of the biggest concerns teachers commonly have about artificial intelligence and AI tools is that it'll hurt the development of critical thinking skills. The reasoning follows that if AI can write essays and generate complex ideas with a single prompt, students won't have to think anymore. AI will do it all for them. While it's true that students are finding ways to use AI to help with their work, it's not necessarily true that they're no longer thinking critically. In fact, it can be argued that critical thinking will become more important than ever in the age of AI, and that as educators, we can use AI tools to help students sharpen their critical thinking skills, rather than dull them. In a recent Forbes article, Ron Carucci echoes this point of view writing, "In reality, critical thinking becomes even more necessary in the age of AI, both to use it properly, and to do the necessary work behind the scenes to make it a more reliable tool." The introduction of generative AI has been compared to the introduction of search engines. When Google was launched in 1998, there are some who feared it would stifle learning and problem-solving by making information retrieval too easy. It was argued that such easy access would eliminate the need to problem-solve and think critically during the research process. In reality, while people had and continue to have more and quicker access to information, it didn't end critical thinking. It shifted it. Rather than spending energy finding content, learners now use their valuable time processing and thinking about that information. It hasn't eliminated the need for critical thinking. Rather, it shifted the focus from access to use. In this sense, generative AI feels like another Google moment. It's prompting us to rethink how we do things and how we spend our time. But it's not necessarily stopping us from thinking for ourselves. Following that train of thought, let's take a look at two different ways that AI can be used to sharpen critical thinking skills.

Transition Music  2:38  

How do I use it? Integration inspiration. Integration ideas.

Paul Beckermann  2:43  

The first set of examples I'm going to explore is how effective student use of generative AI can require high level critical thinking. By interacting thoughtfully and meaningfully with an AI chatbot, students can become better critical thinkers. Here are a few examples of how that might happen. First, generating quality prompts. The first step to using any AI chatbot is entering a prompt or question. Right off the bat, this requires students to think critically. They must assess what information they need, and then think through what potential key words and questions will get the chatbot to return the information they want. Developing effective questions is hard work and requires critical thinking. If you want to take this to the next level, you can explicitly teach students about prompt engineering, or how to generate a quality prompt. Once they understand what key ingredients go into constructing a good prompt, they'll be able to practice an even greater degree of critical thinking, as their questions and prompts will now be evaluated against a set of criteria or outcomes. Not only will this get them thinking more critically, but it will also make them better at writing prompts and using AI in general. I call that a win-win. 

Paul Beckermann  3:59  

Number two, vetting responses. Once students click Enter and the chatbot begins typing out its response, another layer of critical thinking begins. Now students must critically examine the responses they've gotten from the chatbot. They should be evaluating the logic of the response, the quality of the content, and the accuracy of it. They should be looking for any hallucinations, or made up information, and identifying bias in the responses. While students can do some of this with a first read based on what they already know about the topic, that probably will not be enough to do a thorough job. Most students will need to conduct some related research outside of the chatbot to corroborate the response provided by the AI. This type of vetting requires a high degree of critical thinking, especially if students are asked to explain their vetting process once they finish. 

Number three, refining prompts and asking follow-up questions. This critical thinking activity builds on the results of the first two activities. Because prompt engineering is both science and art, students will need to iterate and refine their prompts to get better results. To do this, students must reflect on their prompt and the corresponding response they received. Based on how they rate the quality of the results, they must construct meaningful and targeted follow-up prompts. In essence, they must refine the critical thinking process they began when constructing their first prompt. The instant feedback they get during the process can be exciting and motivating, as well. If they're doing this in groups, the challenge will be even greater as they'll need to reconcile differences among group members and synthesize their ideas into one or more follow-up questions. This again requires a high level of critical thinking. And it can be powerful to have students reflect on their processes and share what they've discovered along the way. This is both good metacognitive and critical thinking practice. 

Number four, thinking critically about AI. This last idea comes from the article, "Embracing the Future of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom." In addition to going through the process of using AI tools, students should be challenged to think more broadly about artificial intelligence, in general. Yoshija Walter, the author of this article, suggests that critical thinking about AI helps students develop skills to critically assess AI news, research, and claims, understanding how to differentiate between AI hype and reality. This type of higher level thinking will help students become more informed digital citizens, and it will also improve their interactions with AI chatbots because they'll have a deeper understanding of how AI chatbots work, as well as their strengths and limitations. This type of high level thought exploration can be facilitated through class discussions, debates, and Jigsaw activities. 

With these first four strategies, it's ideal if students can actually use the generative AI tools themselves. If you work with younger students, the experience will need to be adjusted. When students aren't able to use the AI tools, the teacher will need to model it or guide the experience and demonstrate for the whole class. Through one of these two approaches, students will be able to either directly or indirectly apply critical thinking to that AI experience. So the next way teachers can use AI to prompt critical thinking is to design activities that prompt students to think creatively. Here are five types of activities AI can help generate to foster critical thinking. 

Transition Music  7:31  

Here are your five, here are your five, here are your five tips. 

Paul Beckermann  7:37  

Number one, critiques of AI responses. This activity requires students to generate their own ideas without the help of AI. Then, AI is asked the same questions, and students are asked to compare their student-generated ideas with AI generated ones. During that comparison, students should be asked to evaluate the responses and determine which is best they should defend their decisions with sound reasons. If there's a disagreement among students, you can facilitate a short debate. 

Number two, the use of AI to assist in solving real world problems. In this instance, you would pose a real world problem to your students. Ideally, it has a local slant to it so that the AI has limited knowledge about the specifics, then students can be empowered to use AI to help them come up with solutions to those problems. When they're finished, they should be asked to explain how they used AI to come up with those solutions. Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, takes us one step further, and asks his students to do one impossible thing using AI. Not only do they need to use AI to solve a problem or complete a challenge, but they also need to stretch themselves further than they could have without the tool. For example, they might be asked to code something if they don't know how to code. 

Number three, scenario-based learning. This is similar to the previous example, but different in a couple of key ways. It's similar in that the teachers are using ChatGPT to create the task for the student. However, in this case, students are not solving real problems. Instead, they're engaging in realistic scenarios related to their curriculum. These scenarios can be used to prompt students to apply knowledge learned in class to solve problems, even if these problems are hypothetical. The method encourages critical thinking by requiring students to analyze situations, consider various outcomes, and make informed decisions. 

Number four, debate preparation and analysis. AI can be used in a few different ways here. First off, it can be used to generate potential debate topics for students to consider. Second, students can come up with arguments and evidence to support their side of the debate, and then submit them to a chatbot like ChatGPT asking the AI to come up with flaws in their reasoning, or to respond with counter arguments to consider and plan for. This process encourages students to critically evaluate the validity of each argument and to develop their own reasoned opinions. The AI also pushes their thinking to the next level. 

Number five, writing assistance and feedback. ChatGPT can offer suggestions for improving writing, from structure and coherence to argument strength. On one hand, you might think that this is doing the critical thinking for the students; however, is this any different than having the teacher provide the feedback? Essentially, having the chatbot doing it is like cloning the teacher and providing more and more timely feedback to the students so they can assess and improve their writing. Engaging with the tool allows students to critically assess their own writing and develop their ability to express complex ideas clearly and logical. As with any feedback loop, it requires introspection, and can push them to be better. Overall, when used well, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can enhance, rather than hinder, the development of student critical thinking skills. As is so often the case, what is important is less about the tool, and more about how we use that tool. 

To learn more about today's topic, and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out our collection of articles about AI. You can find it by going to AvidOpenAccess.org and searching for AI in the K-12 Classroom. And, of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast Unpacking Education, where we're joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai