Exploring Students' Perception and Experience with ChatGPT and Critical Thinking in a Higher Education Context

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot based on a large language model that enables users to engage in conversations with it in a human-like way. The adoption of ChatGPT in education has generated significant interest because of its potential to enhance students' learning experience. By delivering personalised and prompt responses, ChatGPT can meet individual student needs, provide immediate feedback, and aid comprehension of difficult concepts. In this paper, we investigate students' experience with ChatGPT, focusing on the topic of critical thinking skills in a higher education context. Data was collected by means of an opinion survey applied to 122 students from the University of Craiova, Romania. The paper reports and discusses the survey findings, with respect to the following issues: students' perceptions of ChatGPT's role in the learning process; the potential benefits and challenges that learners may encounter when using ChatGPT for educational purposes; students' trust in ChatGPT's responses; and students' critical evaluation of the content generated by ChatGPT.