The report, "15 Critical Thinking Skills for Guiding Students' Use of AI Tools," by Med Kharbach, PhD, outlines a framework for helping students apply critical thinking to their interactions with AI. The guide adapts the critical thinking framework from Ennis (2015) to help students question, analyze, and think more deeply about AI-generated content.
Here are the key skills and how to apply them to AI tools:
Have a Focus and Pursue It: Teach students to use AI with a clear purpose, framing a precise inquiry instead of just "asking something".
Analyze Arguments: Have students prompt AI to generate arguments on a topic, then dissect the responses for structure, evidence, and logical strength.
Judge the Credibility of a Source: Challenge students to verify AI-generated claims by asking if a source was cited and if it is credible.
Deal with Fallacy Labels: Use AI to generate flawed arguments (e.g., strawman, slippery slope) and have students label and correct the fallacies.
Think Suppositionally: Encourage students to use "what if" questions with AI to explore alternative perspectives, scenarios, or hypothetical reasoning.
