The Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) held their annual conference in Marino Institute of Education. The conference was entitled, The Making of Authentic Teachers in Ages of Artificiality?, and it had a dedicated strand of papers on the theme of Teaching, Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
I attended many of these papers and regularly heard speakers make the point that we ALL need to develop our critical thinking in relation to the use of AI. Recent AI competency frameworks, such as the UNESCO AI competency framework for teachers and the European Commission’s and OECD’s Empowering Learners for the Age of AI, stress the importance of developing teachers and students with the necessary critical thinking skills required when interacting with AI.
The ATEE conference reminded us that there are many issues facing teachers at present and AI is just one on a growing list. So how can we help teachers to begin to develop their own critical skills and those of their learners and where might they start in relation to building these critical thinking skills when engaging with AI and in particular generative AI (GenAI) applications, such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude etc.
The following definition, from the Royal College of Surgeons Library Guide looks like a good place to start.
Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding and connecting ideas logically. It involves active learning and reflection on content.
In a follow on video they suggest that students ask questions and be sceptical about what the AI tools generate and they recommend students use the RADAR model, and get accustomed to asking questions.
I really like the way they have broken this down into simple language and a few key steps. Then they suggest that you go and engage with a tool, such as ChatGPT (or any other GenAI tool), and use the RADAR rubric to assist you in being critical by asking questions such as:
In this way teachers, at all levels, can develop the critical thinking skills of their students by helping them to critically consider what GenAI technologies are producing by asking more pertinent questions and being more sceptical. This is a good place to start when using GenAI tools to develop student critical thinking, and it can generate meaningful discussions for you and your students.