Technology Category
Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and PreferencesCognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And InteractionIntelligent Robots: Cognitive Robotics
Who Is Doing the Thinking? AI as a Dynamic Cognitive Partner: A Learner-Informed Framework
🤖 AI Summary
This study investigates how secondary school students conceptualize the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in learning, with a particular focus on its positioning within human-AI cognitive interactions. Drawing on qualitative analysis of written reflections from 133 Hong Kong secondary students following an AI literacy course, the research integrates sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, self-regulated learning, and cognitive load theory to propose a learner-centered framework conceptualizing “AI as a dynamic cognitive partner.” This framework comprises nine collaborative dimensions that clearly differentiate between cognitive augmentation and cognitive offloading. It reveals that students can discern, based on contextual learning demands, whether AI functions as a supportive tool that enhances understanding or as a substitute that fosters cognitive dependence. The findings offer both theoretical grounding and practical guidance for the educational integration of AI.
Technology Category
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in education, yet there remains a need to explain how students conceptualize AI's role in their thinking and learning. This study proposes a framework positioning AI as a dynamic cognitive partner whose function shifts across learning situations. Using qualitative analysis of written responses from 133 secondary students in Hong Kong following completion of an AI literacy course, we identified nine interrelated dimensions through which learners described AI as partnering with their cognition: conceptual scaffolding for difficult ideas; feedback and error detection; idea stimulation; cognitive organization; adaptive tutoring support; metacognitive monitoring support; task and cognitive load regulation; learning continuity beyond classroom boundaries; and explanation reframing through representational flexibility during moments of being stuck or overwhelmed. Across these dimensions, students distinguished between productive support that extends understanding and unproductive reliance that replaces cognitive effort, indicating situational awareness of when AI should and should not be used. Grounded in sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, self-regulated learning, and cognitive load perspectives, the framework clarifies how AI becomes integrated into learners' cognitive activity while illuminating the boundary between cognitive extension and substitution.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
AI in education
cognitive partnership
student conceptions
distributed cognition
cognitive load
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
dynamic cognitive partner
learner-informed framework
distributed cognition
cognitive extension vs. substitution
AI literacy
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