In the era of AI, your 'learning tool' cannot replace your thinking
2026-01-29
Nowadays, generative AI has become a "learning tool" for college students. However, in the face of the technology driven "learning revolution", students are gradually exposing the problem of improper use of AI tools while exploring and building adaptive learning models. For example, when searching for information, blindly accepting AI fed data, cases, and literature without tracing, comparing, analyzing, and critically examining them; When writing programs, omit architecture design and directly hand over complete code generation to AI; When conceptualizing a paper, neglecting the problem awareness and internal logic of the research topic, and simply mechanically applying the patterned argumentation structure provided by AI. The long-term consequence of this is that students are accustomed to easily obtaining ready-made answers, making it difficult to establish deep cognitive connections with knowledge, resulting in weak problem awareness and hindering the development of metacognitive abilities; Lack of systematic training in core skills such as writing, mathematical deduction, and programming design makes it difficult to substantially improve higher-order cognitive abilities related to language expression, logical thinking, and problem decomposition; The continuous avoidance of setbacks and necessary training during the learning process leads to a decrease in psychological resilience and a weakening of learning autonomy. It can be seen that long-term dependence on AI may lead to increased cognitive inertia, weakened cognitive abilities, and decreased self-efficacy. In this regard, we must remain highly vigilant. The author believes that being wary of AI becoming a "lazy tool" for students, teachers need to focus on guiding students to abide by academic ethics, follow disciplinary norms, and hone professional skills in AI applications in classroom teaching and research guidance, achieving an organic unity of external AI empowerment and internal professional competence improvement. Teachers and students need to have a comprehensive and objective understanding of the performance and value of AI in knowledge exploration and transmission. Only by understanding the advantages and disadvantages of AI can we rationally examine its role and boundaries in education, teaching, and scientific research, and reduce the technological dependence caused by blind worship and the technological panic caused by unknown domination. Einstein once said that posing a problem is often more important than solving it. In the known field of knowledge, artificial intelligence has demonstrated powerful problem-solving abilities. However, in the face of unknown knowledge fields, posing new questions, expanding new horizons, and creating new paradigms require innovative imagination and critical thinking - which is the unique advantage of human cognition that is difficult for AI to surpass. This prompts teachers to return to thinking about the essence of education, re recognize the key goals of education in the digital age, and attach importance to cultivating students' higher-order thinking and ability to solve complex problems through innovative teaching methods, enriching teaching scenarios, reforming evaluation mechanisms, and expanding practical fields. At the practical level, teachers should help students internalize value norms and master the application skills of "AI+profession", integrating academic ethics, professional norms, and data security throughout the entire process of AI empowered education and teaching. For example, a heuristic exercise similar to Socrates' "spiritual midwifery" suggests that asking questions to AI should not only be for obtaining definitive answers, but should also be viewed as a dialogue with existing research and known achievements, expanding one's innovative ideas through critical thinking of the content generated by AI. In the face of the accelerating technological wave, we must not let students go with the flow without guidance. How to make reasonable and effective use of tools is a technological choice that is both beneficial and beneficial. More importantly, it is important to make students understand that technology can assist thinking, but cannot replace thinking itself; Artificial intelligence can generate answers with just one click, but the integration of knowledge, the broad selection of knowledge, and the clarity of thought are not achieved overnight. Instead, they require hands-on experience, observation, and continuous reflection. (New Press) (Author: Wang Yu, lecturer at the School of Marxism, China University of Petroleum [Beijing])
Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Wang Xiaojing
Source:GMW.cn
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