AI usage is now a required 21st Century skill. K12 Students need AI Literacy to get prepared to live and work in an AI-everywhere world. Learn more here.

An attempt to do justice to a diverse community

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has transformed numerous aspects of daily life, yet its impact on critical thinking remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between AI tool usage and critical thinking skills, focusing on cognitive offloading as a mediating factor. Utilising a mixed-method approach, we conducted surveys and in-depth interviews with 666 participants across diverse age groups and educational backgrounds. Quantitative data were analysed using ANOVA and correlation analysis, while qualitative insights were obtained through thematic analysis of interview transcripts. The findings revealed a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities, mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older participants. Furthermore, higher educational attainment was associated with better critical thinking skills, regardless of AI usage. These results highlight the potential cognitive costs of AI tool reliance, emphasising the need for educational strategies that promote critical engagement with AI technologies. This study contributes to the growing discourse on AI’s cognitive implications, offering practical recommendations for mitigating its adverse effects on critical thinking. The findings underscore the importance of fostering critical thinking in an AI-driven world, making this research essential reading for educators, policymakers, and technologists.

Inside Harvard's new groundbreaking study

Discover how critical thinking evolves in the age of AI. Learn tips to collaborate with AI, refine outputs, and harness the uniquely human advantage in an AI-driven world

ED is America’s education agency. We help students pay for school, support families, and give educators tools to do their jobs. We protect students' rights and make sure every American has equal access to an education.

AI is saving money, time, and energy but in return it might be taking away one of the most precious natural gifts humans have.

How the ID role is changing, and what this means for your key skills, roles & responsibilities

Teachers are unsure about the ability of AI to cut their workload, a report finds - as the government spends millions on developing AI tools for schools

Recently, the distinguished schooling historian Larry Cuban gave an address in which he asserted that every new technology introduced to improve teaching and learning in schools has been hyped as “revolutionary” or “transformational” and that AI will join a long list of technolgies that never forced educators to rethink how teachers teach and students learn.

Colleges and universities are considering new ways to incorporate generative AI into teaching and learning, but not every student is on board with the tech yet. Experts weigh in on the necessity of AI in career preparation and higher education’s role in preparing students for jobs of the future.

A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we figured out about the field in the past …

Discover the best AI prompt galleries for teachers in 2025. Save time, spark creativity, and enhance learning with curated, teacher-tested AI prompts.

The saved time did not come at the expense of quality, independent evaluation finds

How to create an AI strategy in school, including 6 areas to consider in your AI policy and 4 steps for implementation

The saved time did not come at the expense of quality, independent evaluation finds

As tech companies release a slew of generative AI updates, there's a growing risk that educational practices and policies are struggling to keep up with new capabilities

A three-step, hands-on project to deepen your AI skills by building a bot

I really hate generative AI, because there are many reasons to hate it. It's abilities depend on stolen data; it uses so much electricity it...

A three-step, hands-on project to deepen your AI skills by building a bot

Learn how to use the latest flagship AI model from OpenAI ChatGPT-4o to write complete and entire books using prompts to structure the story

OpenScholar, an innovative AI system by Allen Institute for AI and University of Washington, revolutionizes scientific research by processing 45 million papers instantly, offering researchers citation-backed answers and challenging proprietary AI systems.

As a new semester approaches, I am reviewing applications to my advanced writing course while trying to plan a campus-wide summit on the challenges generative AI poses to pedagogy. Several of these…

California schools are using more chatbots, and teachers are using them to grade papers and give students feedback.

What Do Five Recent Studies Say About AI's Classroom Impact: A Nuanced Reality Emerges Nick Potkalitsky Dec 02, 2024 As we mark two years since ChatGPT's momentous launch in November 2022, a persistent claim continues to echo through academic circles: that there is "absolutely no evidence" suggestin

And a plea to think seriously about climate change without getting distracted

A new survey conducted May 7-15, 2024 for the Walton Family Foundation shows that knowledge of and support for AI in education is growing amongst parents, teachers, K-12 students, and college students. More than 80% of each group saying it has had a positive impact on education.