Three years into the present Synthetic Intelligence (AI) hype cycle, catalyzed by the discharge of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI continues to profoundly disrupt increased training. A current survey of greater than 300 college leaders affirms lots of the considerations expressed in public discourse: nearly all of college students use generative AI whereas nearly all of school don’t; dishonest has elevated whereas AI detection instruments stay unreliable; nearly all establishments really feel behind progress ultimately. Whereas we definitely share these considerations, we do stay comparatively optimistic about one facet of upper training: studying to write down.
From the second ChatGPT hit the scene, articles proclaimed the loss of life of the faculty essay, and college students have begun questioning the necessity to develop expertise in writing. What provides us motive for hope comes all the way down to how we outline writing.
Generative AI instruments resembling ChatGPT can now produce polished, technically competent texts in seconds, difficult our conventional understanding of writing as a uniquely human technique of creation, reflection, and studying. For a lot of educators, this disruption raises questions in regards to the position of writing of their disciplines. In our new guide, The right way to Use Writing for Instructing and Studying, we argue that this disruption presents a possibility slightly than a menace. Discover from our guide’s title that our focus is just not essentially on “find out how to educate writing.” For us, writing is just not an finish aim, which suggests our college students don’t essentially be taught to write down for the sake of writing. Relatively, we outline writing as a way of inquiry that enables entry to numerous discourse communities (e.g., an educational self-discipline), social worlds (e.g., the information economic system), and types of information (e.g., literature).
The true worth of writing lies within the pondering it generates (pun meant)—prioritizing new info, triangulating it with different sources of knowledge to uncover new insights, and analogizing the knowledge to make sense of it from totally different views. We name this technique of prioritization, triangulation, and analogizing “concentric pondering,” because it includes making a number of layered connections, just like how our brains develop schemas. We not solely assign writing with a purpose to educate our content material, however college students additionally use writing to discover connections between assigned texts, lived experiences, and different course content material.
By reframing writing as a cognitive course of slightly than merely an consequence, AI’s existence compels us to combine writing extra deliberately into our programs, whatever the self-discipline. Certain, AI may produce an A-quality essay in seconds, however we people stay a curious species; writing, together with its equal studying, is the main approach we fulfill our information-seeking drive. AI not solely presents a superb excuse to make use of writing for instructing and studying, but it surely additionally calls for it. In any case, to make use of generative AI successfully, one should be capable to clearly immediate the device in addition to critically learn the output.
The opposite trigger for hope is that we describe a pedagogical concern, one thing we will affect by the methods we design and educate programs. Now we have the company and the power to foster high quality studying, particularly in our present period. Beneath, we discover the three cognitive strikes of concentric pondering—prioritization, translation, and analogy—and present how low stakes, casual writing assignments can leverage these strikes to reinforce instructing and studying within the AI period.
Concentric Pondering
On the core of our mannequin are three interrelated cognitive strikes that writing facilitates: prioritization, translation, and analogy. These strikes align with the methods specialists manage and apply information of their fields.
Prioritize Info: Earlier than college students can write successfully, they have to be taught to establish and rank key concepts from their readings, lectures, or discussions. As an illustration, in a historical past course, an off-the-cuff writing immediate may ask college students to pick essentially the most important occasion in a unit on the Civil Rights Motion and justify their selection. This train encourages college students to interact critically with the fabric, distinguishing central concepts from supporting particulars.
Translate Understanding: Translation includes reframing advanced ideas into accessible language. This step not solely reinforces comprehension but additionally prepares college students to speak concepts successfully to various audiences. In a biology course, college students may write a short clarification of DNA replication as in the event that they had been explaining it to a highschool scholar. By simplifying the idea, they deepen their very own understanding.
Analogize Insights: Drawing connections between course materials and real-world issues fosters higher-order pondering. For instance, in a sociology course, college students might write about how present debates on financial inequality mirror historic patterns of social stratification. Analogical pondering helps college students see the broader relevance of their research and prepares them to use information in new contexts.
These strikes are recursive, constructing on each other as college students progress from casual reflections to extra formal assignments. By designing prompts that scaffold these strikes, lecturers might help college students develop the habits of thoughts essential for disciplinary experience.
Low-Stakes Casual Writing within the Classoom
Casual writing assignments, also referred to as “writing-to-learn,” are versatile instruments that may be tailored to any self-discipline. Listed here are a couple of examples of how concentric pondering might be fostered by writing duties that focus extra on studying than analysis:
Pre-Class Reflections: Earlier than class, college students may write a brief response prioritizing essentially the most compelling argument from the assigned studying. These reflections can be utilized to construction class discussions, guaranteeing that college students have interaction with the fabric in significant methods.
In-Class Workout routines: Throughout class, college students might work in pairs to translate a difficult idea into easy phrases, then share their explanations with the group. This collaborative train reinforces understanding whereas fostering communication expertise.
Publish-Class Functions: After a lecture, college students is perhaps tasked with writing a short analogy connecting the day’s subject to a real-world concern. For instance, in an environmental science course, college students might relate ideas of ecosystem stability to city planning challenges.
Such assignments require minimal grading and might be formatively assessed for college students’ studying journeys. The main focus stays on creating college students’ crucial pondering and cognitive flexibility slightly than correctness or adherence to conventions.
Writing as a Lifelong Pathway In the direction of Experience
In an period the place AI-generated textual content can mimic experience with out really embodying it, writing as concentric pondering provides an irreplaceable cognitive pathway for creating real mastery. Experience, as cognitive science exhibits, is just not about merely accumulating information; it includes organizing and integrating info into deeply linked schemas that may be utilized throughout contexts. Writing fosters this course of by requiring college students to prioritize important concepts, translate advanced ideas into accessible language, and analogize insights to new or interdisciplinary challenges.
The casual writing we assign act as low-stakes alternatives for college students to interact in deliberate observe. These prompts scaffold the connections between prior information and new content material, offering important observe in disciplinary pondering. By iterative suggestions—designed not solely to establish gaps however to information deeper reflection—college students step by step shift from surface-level memorization to a nuanced understanding after all materials. Formative suggestions serves as a bridge, serving to college students navigate challenges and rework their understanding of adverse ideas.
Moreover, the interaction between formative and summative assessments underscores the relevance of writing to creating experience. When college students revisit their casual writing through the organizational part of a significant project, they have interaction in a vital technique of synthesizing their studying. By integrating casual writing with remaining assignments, lecturers present a cohesive studying arc that fosters not simply job completion however a deep understanding of disciplinary strategies and epistemologies.
AI might provide polished outputs, but it surely can’t replicate the mental journey college students undertake as they have interaction with course content material, assigned readings, and different studying experiences with writing because the car. The metacognitive insights gained by concentric pondering—prioritizing, translating, and analogizing—equip college students with a degree of experience that transcends what any AI can generate. These expertise usually are not solely crucial for tutorial success but additionally for navigating the advanced, information-saturated world past the classroom.
As educators, we maintain the instruments to design writing processes that domesticate genuine studying and experience. By reframing writing as a dynamic scaffold for inquiry slightly than a static product, we put together our college students to suppose critically, synthesize information, and apply their studying in significant methods. On this, we not solely protect the worth of writing in increased training but additionally make sure that our college students emerge as assured, capably generative (pun as soon as once more meant) of latest information.
Suzanne Hudd is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology who additionally served as Director of the Writing Throughout the Curriculum program at Quinnipiac College.
Robert A. Sensible is a former Dean of Arts & Sciences at QU, Professor Emeritus of English, and resident of the good state of Maine.
Andrew W. Delohery is the affiliate vice chairman of retention and tutorial success at Quinnipiac College, the place he has additionally teaches programs in First Yr Writing and the First-Yr Seminar.
JT Torres is the Director of the Houston H. Harte Heart for Instructing and Studying at Washington & Lee College.
