Critical thinking in the age of AI

  • 7 minutes

Critical thinking while reading information or using a generative AI tool is an important skill. AI is a powerful tool, but it can’t think critically like humans can. Critical thinking is an important skill for learners who read information or use generative AI tools. They need to evaluate the information and question if the information or the content they're consuming is true or not. Not everything online is based on facts, so learners need to know how to check if a website is reliable. This is part of the critical thinking journey.

Search Coach, which is built into Microsoft Teams for Education, helps learners form effective search queries. It contains a powerful fact-checking feature and helps learners determine the reliability of any website.

Searching vs. prompting

Searching and prompting are two different ways to find information from a search engine. Searching uses a search engine like Bing to find content related to a keyword search. Iterative prompting uses an LLM (large language model), like Copilot, to generate a response based on data and includes citations to the resources for learning more. Let's explore how iterative prompting can help a learner go further with their research in a secondary class.

A learner receives an assignment to research the ecosystem of a biome of their choice for a science course. The educator allows AI to be used in the research portion as long as the sources are fact-checked. The learner launches Copilot and enters in "Tell me about the ecosystem of penguins in Antarctica."

Screenshot of Copilot in Edge generating a summary of research on penguins and links to learn more at the end of the response.

Copilot generates a summary with citations that’s quick to read, with links to more information. The learner selects "Learn more" to fact-check the information about penguins. With skills they learned from lessons on fact-checking in Search Coach, the learner determines which websites are reliable. They select those links for lateral reading to ensure accuracy of the information. Finally, they create notes from their research to begin their essay.

Prompt generating is a learned skill that takes practicing with learners. The AI Student Toolkit has more resources for examples and ways to use Copilot with learners.