CTRL + THINK: Changing STEM Students’ Attitudes about Using AI in Learning-Centered Ways

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Motivation, Mindsets, and AI: Understanding Learner Attributes in AI-Enhanced Education

Abstract

Because of learners’ rapid adoption of Generative AI tools, we experimentally tested a brief video intervention designed to change students’ attitudes about using AI in more learning-centered ways. Given the potentially maladaptive ways students might use GenAI as a shortcut or a means to academic dishonesty, our aim was to increase students’ critical thinking towards GenAI. Specifically, the intervention provided tips to engage in deeper learning with GenAI and evaluate possible inaccuracies and biases. In a sample of over 300 STEM college students, the intervention’s effects on four types of GenAI attitudes were statistically significant with small to moderate effects, relative to control participants who viewed an AI history video. Implications for theory and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Carlton J. Fong, Texas State University

• Pedram Zarei, Texas State University

• Zachary Baquet, University of Houston

• Stephen Oluwaseyi Maku, Texas State University

• IMANEH SOLEIMANI, Texas State University

• Zohreh Fathi, Texas State University

• Pegah Peimani, Texas State University