10 tips to help foster critical thinking and original writing

At the start of another school year, faculty members across Canadian universities and colleges are meeting to discuss how to implement effective strategies to manage the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. At the core of these roundtables is a critical inquiry:
How do we, as educators, invite our students to embrace the latest technology without allowing it to replace the fundamental skills needed to meet course outcomes and workplace requirements?

Many professors advocate the use of AI among postsecondary students to both mirror and prepare them for industry expectations. Undoubtedly, AI has extraordinary capabilities, offering advanced, meaningful applications for numerous fields, including healthcare, commerce, media and manufacturing. Several programs naturally lend themselves to the use of AI. However, other disciplines, such as English literature, rhetoric, and modern languages, often resist its ubiquity with the belief that bots, like ChatGPT, replace fundamental skills in writing and critical thinking.

As a professor of English and communications, I have struggled to mitigate the widespread use of AI, especially among international learners. The problem is even more rampant in online, asynchronous courses, where assessments are submitted virtually. I do not want to deprive students of innovative technology, but I have found, since 2023, that learners (at all levels of education) are losing the willingness – and the ability – to express their own thoughts in writing.

Even for personalized assignments, like a self-reflection piece, which is designed to invite just a few, pensive remarks, students are opting to prompt a system to produce generic prose on their behalf. The result, through a pedagogical lens, is that students are not confident or diligent enough to craft original compositions. Rather than applying course content to develop sentences independently, students routinely enlist the help of software that removes the messy yet rewarding writing process.

To encourage my students to make necessary mistakes that strengthen their foundational writing skills, I facilitate practice activities and provide copious amounts of formative feedback. However, despite flexible success criteria that do not prioritize fluency or writing mechanics, students still choose AI to substantiate or wholly substitute their own perspectives. Though ongoing, deeper conversations of why learners use AI are warranted. In a skills-based environment that is guided by academic integrity policies, professors must continue to debate if – and how – AI will be policed.

Through my interactions with colleagues in humanities and social sciences, I have generated a short list of strategies and approaches that seek to humanize the writing experience:

1) Include a statement in the course syllabus or teaching and learning plan.

Indicate that, unless otherwise noted, the use of AI is not permitted to complete tasks. Explain that AI can be used, much like Google, to search for information, but not to compose assignments, in part or in whole. Link any institutional academic honesty policies on the syllabus and consider inviting students to sign an academic integrity waiver and/or complete a virtual module on AI use.

2) Show students how AI works. 

If time allows, show students different writing assistants, like ChatGPT, QuillBot, ClickUp, Gemini, and Frase to demystify AI. Doing so will allow professors to explore the intricacies of AI and, more importantly, demonstrate to students that they know what it is, how it works – and how to detect it. Remind students that their school’s learning management system (LMS) is also equipped with an active AI detector, such as Turnitin or Scribbr. Reinforce the notion that merely rewording an AI composition does not make it an original work.

3) Expose the shortcomings of AI.

Demonstrate the limitations of AI by using it to locate recent research articles, answer comprehension questions, or develop a resume. Invite students to identify, discuss and critique the work of AI alongside a set of success criteria. In my class, I ask students to use ChatGPT to create a cover letter. When they begin reading their peers’ files, students notice that all are nearly the same: unoriginal, untailored, unclear and unspecific. Some professors have created assignments that challenge learners to rewrite and improve AI work.

4) Move assessments from online to in-person.

Structure the course so that all writing tasks, including culminating assignments and exams, are completed in the classroom without the use of assistive technology (i.e., cell phone, iPad, laptop, etc.). At the start of the term, collect a hand-written reflection from all students to act as a writing sample. To accommodate writing sessions, I have reduced the instructional period of each class, opting to post some supplementary content on my school’s LMS. Students must be in class to earn a credit for their assessment. Learners with official academic accommodations are allowed to use a personal device to type their responses.

5) Create original assignments that cannot be completed with the use of AI.

Read-and-respond exercises that pose unique, meaningful questions to students about the work (i.e., academic article) that they have just read in class can be quite productive. The more recent the publication (i.e. 2024), the more challenging it is for students to apply AI. For in-class reading exercises, consider using a personally authored piece and asking students to provide evidence from it. For example, I have students read one of my own print articles and respond to questions that require them to make direct references and comparisons to different paragraphs in the text.

6) Create application-based tasks that foster critical thinking. 

Rather than develop knowledge-based assignments that can be completed with AI, tailor assessments so that they are unique and reflective of in-class discussions, themes, presentations and activities. In addition to assessing students’ writing skills, challenge them with thought-provoking and/or opinion-based questions that ask them to make specific connections to course content and events. Before an assignment has been published, upload its instructions and/or questions to ChatGPT to determine if students will be able to use AI easily. Make notes about what AI generates and revise the task as necessary.

7) Include specific questions that cannot be answered by AI. 

As part of a literature review or an annotated bibliography, ask students to demonstrate, explicitly, how the research sources that they have selected will prove their thesis or support their points. Prompt them to explain how a direct quotation, statistic, or finding relates to their main idea and how it will be integrated in their prose. This way, even if students are using AI, they still need to do some work. Many educators have also embedded hidden prompts (“Trojan horses”) in their instructions.

8) Create mandatory “checkpoints” with students.

If students are working on a larger task, like a report, project, or an essay, develop mandatory check-in meetings at various points throughout the term so that you can ask students about their progress and have them explain their work so far. This scaffolding, which can start as early as the brainstorming stage, can be time consuming, but it cultivates many skills, like interpersonal oral communication, that may enhance writing. Moreover, professors can assess to what degree students have applied the feedback provided. Especially in virtual courses, these checkpoints are critical to fostering student engagement and accountability.

9) Schedule a meeting to discuss the assignment after it has been submitted.

If a student’s task seems to have been developed with use of AI, set up a virtual or physical meeting to get to know the student and express concerns about the authenticity of their work. To address suspicions about the submission, ask specific questions about its content, vocabulary, and writing or revision processes. Invite students to explain or elaborate on key themes, phrases, and ideas – particularly those that are vague, unrelated to course content and the assignment, or worded in a verbose, inaccessible manner. If students lack a basic understanding of their own assessment’s content, it is usually a clear indicator that they have used AI or have hired someone to do the work for them.

10) Enforce the policies of academic integrity. 

Spend a lot of time with students at the start of the term reviewing expectations regarding AI use in the course. Encourage them to use their own words when articulating their ideas. Invite them to ask questions and present a work-in-progress. Explain that a reworded or edited AI composition is still inauthentic. Remind students that when they use AI to complete a composition for them, they are not learning or cultivating writing, communication, or critical thinking skills. Be proactive when addressing artificial intelligence in the classroom. But, be prepared to align practices with institutional policies on academic integrity and honesty. If AI use among students is viewed as a legitimate misconduct, then it must be managed accordingly.

My hope for the upcoming fall semester is that, by following some of these guidelines, faculty may begin to see, among students, a return to authentic writing. Beyond reducing the time spent finding the sources constituting students’ submissions and filing academic misconduct reports, such a shift serves to motivate learners to share their ideas in their own words.