ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1630493
This article is part of the Research TopicRedefining Learning in the Digital Age: Pedagogical Strategies and OutcomesView all 11 articles
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CRITICAL THINKING: A CASE STUDY WITH EDUCATIONAL CHATBOTS
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
- 2Universidade da Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
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This article presents an investigation into the evolution of critical questioning that occurred in a dialogic relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and a group of students in higher education. Drawing from students' class records, it attempts to comprehend the evolution of critical thinking in the context of formal education, utilizing a structure with five levels of questions: General and Defining, Specific, Applied, Integrative, and Critical Engagement, as delineated by theorists Elder and Paul (2002), Facione (2015), Nosich (2009), andBrowne andKeeley (2007). The results indicate the presence of questioning patterns centered on levels four and five, namely the utilization of Integrative and Critical Engagement questions, resulting from contextualized discussions. The students' interaction with AI allowed them to observe: the diversity of questioning levels, the progression of critical thinking, areas for improvement in each working group, the encouragement of reflexivity and metacognition, engagement with complex concepts, visualization of practical application of concepts, and the expansion of interdisciplinary thinking. This study contributes to the literature on education and technology, offering insights into how to structure effective dialogic interactions between students and AI systems.
Keywords: AI education, AI-Student Interaction, Chatbots, Critical Thinking, higher education
Received: 17 May 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tinoca and Brazão. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Luís Tinoca, Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
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