Modern society is experiencing unprecedented changes due to the rapid development and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In particular, the emergence of commercial generative AI services is transforming the landscape of ou...
Modern society is experiencing unprecedented changes due to the rapid development and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In particular, the emergence of commercial generative AI services is transforming the landscape of our daily lives, work, and education. Students are actively using generative AI as a learning support tool, given their high access to and receptivity toward technology. However, a serious social concern has arisen regarding the decline in thinking abilities, as learners may uncritically accept information without fully understanding the limitations of the technology or may rely on technology for cognitive processes that require independent reasoning and judgment.
Social Studies Controversial Issues Instruction is a widely used teaching-learning model that stimulates students' critical thinking. This study aimed to explore methods to address the problem of declining critical thinking and simultaneously foster it by integrating generative AI technology into this instructional model. Furthermore, the study originated from the recognition that social studies education needs to explore ways to cultivate the competencies needed for the critical understanding and responsible use of AI technology, which is emerging as a new form of citizenship in modern society.
To empirically verify the effect of generative AI-integrated Social Studies Controversial Issues Instruction on high school students' critical thinking, the following research hypotheses were established:
■ Research Hypothesis: High school students participating in generative AI-integrated Social Studies Controversial Issues Instruction will demonstrate significantly greater improvement in critical thinking compared to those participating in Controversial Issues Instruction without generative AI.
▪ Sub-hypothesis 1: Students in the generative AI-integrated group will show greater improvement in critical thinking skills than the control group.
▪ Sub-hypothesis 2: Students in the generative AI-integrated group will show greater improvement in critical thinking dispositions than the control group.
To test these hypotheses, a generative AI-integrated instruction was designed based on the SAC+ model. The study was conducted with 144 high school seniors in Sejong City, the Republic of Korea, divided into a treatment group and a control group, over three sessions. Critical thinking was measured before and after the instruction using the NYPI Critical Thinking Test. The treatment group received prior training on AI literacy and prompt engineering and utilized generative AI for text comprehension, evidence collection, and presentation drafting during the study and preparation stage of the SAC+ model. The control group followed the same procedure with the same controversial issue but was restricted from using commercial generative AI services.
To verify the effectiveness of the treatment, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed using pre-test scores and control variables as covariates. The results are as follows: First, the generative AI-integrated instruction did not have a statistically significant effect on high school students' critical thinking skills. This aligns with previous research suggesting that immediate changes or growth in cognitive abilities, such as critical thinking skills, are difficult to achieve through a short-term intervention limited to three sessions. Therefore, Sub-hypothesis 1 was rejected.
Second, the instruction had a statistically significant positive effect on the improvement of high school students' critical thinking dispositions. This implies that students internalized critical thinking dispositions in the process of critically examining AI responses and using them to verify and revise their arguments and evidence as they prepared for the presentation. Therefore, Sub-hypothesis 2 was accepted.
This study demonstrated that generative AI technology, when combined with social studies teaching-learning models, can serve as a useful educational tool for enhancing high school students' critical thinking dispositions. By preventing uncritical acceptance through preparatory education and carefully structuring the technology utilization process within instructional process, this study empirically confirmed that the technology can function as a tool to extend, rather than replace, student thinking. Considering that a critical thinking disposition is a necessary condition for the manifestation of critical thinking, these results suggest that the educational use of generative AI in social studies can serve as a starting point for critical thinking education.
Furthermore, this study is significant in that it presents a direction for how to cultivate new forms of citizenship required in a digital and AI society within social studies classes by educationally drawing on both the potential and limitations of generative AI technology. Instruction designed to encourage students to explore the imperfections of technology and to engage in independent thinking even when interacting with technology demonstrates that social studies education can contribute to cultivating citizens who judge information and technology critically and use them responsibly. These findings suggest that AI technology can become an effective tool for achieving learning objectives in high school social studies classes, providing important insights for exploring the new roles and tasks of future civic education.