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Teachers warn AI is impacting students' critical thinking (www.axios.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The root of the problem is way, way older than AI. It's a mix of

  • humans being naturally lazy, typically not developing skills or knowledge unless we're clearly getting something out of it
  • we have a thoooousand tools enabling us to do stuff without skill/knowledge
  • our education systems do not value self-improvement enough to promote the development of those skills and knowledge

So it's a lot like you not remembering phone numbers by heart because you can check them in your contact list, you know?

And, yes, text generators do play a role on that. But when it comes to critical thinking, it's a death of a thousand cuts.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Exactly. Just the latest VC technological advancement to exacerbate existing problems. The lack of critical thinking is why the far right has room to breathe, let alone brainwash entire populations.

The sad part is that it’s likely all by design. Turn everyone into sheep then line them up for slaughter.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Dunno if it's by design, "bug turned into feature", or simply neglect. In any case, the result is the same, though - masses that are easy to manipulate, composed of dysfunctional individuals.

The lack of critical thinking is why the far right has room to breathe

100% this. People often say "you're not immune to propaganda", and that's true - complete immunity is impossible. However, critical thinking does raise your resistance, as it makes you less eager to swallow bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Then when you factor in the U.S. public schools' approach to children who do think critically, it gets even worse. Kids in school are encouraged to stay silent and accept what they're told. A kid who openly questions something a teacher says is liable to get into trouble, both officially by the teacher, and socially by their peers who can't yet grasp the concept of an authority figure being wrong.

Teachers can share false information all they want, and if a student dares to call out an urban myth, the student can be sent away to the principal's office. Now the teacher can continue spouting whatever non-fact-checked nonsense they like, the rest of the kids are discouraged from speaking out if they recognize something false, and the critical thinker is labeled a trouble-maker both by the administration and by classmates. It's an authoritarian hat trick that keeps a lot of kids in line.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Critical thinking not being a core class in the curriculum is hurting student's critical thinking. Its not something you develop by default.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Our Current Affairs teacher pulled this move, spring of '89 for context:

Paper boy drops off a stack of the afternoon edition, teacher picks one up and seriously peruses it for a minute.

Reading from the paper: "Please pay attention. 'President George Bush has announced that an offensive action has begin against Iraq. US Air Force tactical bombers led the assault on Baghdad at 4AM this morning while grounds troops have taken positions on the outskirts.'" And so forth. "Discuss."

We excitedly kicked this around for 20 minutes. First time GenX was at war! He then showed us the headline: Local Man Wins Regional Bike Race.

"Every one of you believed what I said because you thought it was written in the newspaper." Stunned silence. "Discuss."

He was county or state teacher of the year for '88 and promised an automatic A to anyone who could make him smile, even once. We had no clue if he was a Democrat or Republican, no clue as to his opinion on anything.

And just look around lemmy. Hundreds of upvotes because people thought Vance made a serious comment about Greenland being cold. (It was an obvious joke to the troops if one had taken a moment and thought, "Surely fucking not." and watched 25-seconds of video.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Something rubs the the wrong way about how the teacher presented that problem. Was the lesson supposed to be "don't believe anything unless you can verify it yourself"? In his example, he was the unreliable source. I'm assuming he was infering the paper can also be an unreliable source? I'm hoping he went into the importance of checking multiple, credible sources to get a larger picture, rather than just leaving it at "you always might be lied to". A blanket "don't trust so-called authorities for facts" is how we end up with people questioning vaccines and flat earthers turning from satire to something troubling.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

"System designed around teaching students to memorize shocked to learn students are not learning to think. More at 6."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

You're a fool if you don't think our modern public education system is deliberately fucked by half a century of persistent conservative fuckery

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

I've literally done my own study on this with CS students and found a similar result. Students who reported using AI regularly couldn't recognize when it wasn't giving them any useful output

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Sure! Here's an analysis of how AI may impact critical thinking in students: A lot of students have been known to use AI to write their essays and homework, which may have a negative impact in their learning process, since they are not using their own skills to think about their assignments. This has been reported several times in the media, specially because sometimes students forget to erase the first lines of the AI answers, which are typically directed to the user, and make it easier to detect that the answer was produced by AI.

But don't worry, if you need anything else, I'm here for you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, the age-old debate of AI in education—where the line between 'assistance' and 'assignment' gets blurrier than a chalkboard after a day of lectures! While it's true that AI can sometimes be the 'ghostwriter' for essays, let's not forget that it can also be a fantastic tutor, offering instant feedback and endless patience. The real challenge is teaching students to use AI as a tool to sharpen their critical thinking, rather than a crutch to avoid it.

Imagine if calculators had never been allowed in math class because they 'did the work for you.' We'd still be stuck on long division while the world moved on to algebra! The key is balance—using AI to enhance learning, not replace it. And as for those telltale AI intro lines, well, consider them a modern-day 'cheat sheet' detector—a gentle nudge to remind students that original thought is still the gold standard.

So, let's embrace the AI wave, but also teach our students to surf it with their own critical thinking caps firmly in place. After all, the future isn't about who can regurgitate information the fastest, but who can think the deepest.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

AI is not like calculators. Calculators are simple, it's purpose is clear and it's easy to asses the extent to which it fulfills it, they are also open source, if anything because they are easy to reverse engineer. AI is a closed source product meant to be commodified or served as a service for a profit by private companies. They are monumental proyects built on tons of energy and patented material unduly acknowledged, nobody knows how they really work and there's neither public funding for research nor open source ecosystems to provide alternatives. Their owners dont care about kids and their skills, they care for money. So the problem is not that we are ignoring the ai wave, the problem is that the wave is being steered by a private actor over whom we as a society have no control. Even if you wanted to teach kids to use ai intelligently, nothing garantees you actually can, since its owner may declare banktupcy or just change it without saying and you will have a new problem to deal with. So yeah fuck ai. I'm a robotics teacher in middle school and I do teach ai btw, I just dont encourage it's use. I just teach how it works and how to use it as a better search engine. This is more so because I have to rather than because I want to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Calculators crippled our ability to do simple math in our heads. I've had to work for years to get off that reliance.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

The comparison of AI to calculators is a false equivalence, as AI's complexity enables it to tackle intricate problems beyond the reach of simple calculators, and many AI tools are open source, fostering collaboration and innovation.

Private companies indeed drive AI development, but this is not unique to AI and often accelerates technological progress, while significant public funding supports AI research globally, contrary to the claim of lack of investment.

Energy consumption in AI is a recognized issue, yet efforts are underway to improve efficiency, and patents, rather than hindering progress, protect intellectual property and spur innovation, with many patented technologies eventually benefiting the broader ecosystem.

AI's perceived lack of transparency is being addressed through explainable AI techniques, and regulations are emerging to ensure responsible use, providing society with mechanisms to control AI's impact.

Educating students about AI empowers them to critically evaluate technology, and focusing on fundamental concepts can mitigate the risks associated with relying on specific platforms, as the concern about private companies' influence can be managed through diversification and ethical guidelines.

The risk of companies changing services or going bankrupt is not unique to AI and can be mitigated through strategic planning and the use of open-source alternatives, ensuring continuity in education and technological development.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The average human's critical thinking skill was already low before AI, so...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

That's largely thanks to religion.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

My coworkers too

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No duh

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

That's just the paper I was thinking of.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

It is, but we stopped teaching it literally decades ago, so what are kids supposed to do?

That was a victim of No Child Left Behind, along with a lot of other important shit.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Why else would all the tech giants push for everyone to use AI?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Intellectual labor is hard and humans don't like doing difficult things, paired with a culture that's increasingly hostile to education and a government that wants you ignorant- it's easy to see how this happens in the US.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah but that's the plan

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