The Integration of ChatGPT into Higher Education to Promote Critical Thinking

ChatGPT-4, a generative artificial intelligence large language model, is capable of producing written content sophisticated enough to score close to the 90th percentile on the bar exam. This has sent shockwaves through higher education institutes worldwide, as they rush to protect the integrity of their assessments, with some prohibiting its use altogether. Others have endeavoured to embrace ChatGPT as a learning tool, exploring its potential benefits for teaching and learning. This study examines the role of AI in education, focusing on the specific research question: ‘What insights can be gained from using ChatGPT-3.5 to promote critical thinking in undergraduate students?’. The research involved a control group and an experimental group, consisting of 16 and 19 undergraduate engineering students, respectively. Both group were asked similar descriptive questions. The intervention involved using ChatGPT-3.5, providing students with prompts to encourage critical analysing ChatGPT’s responses. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyse the data, with a critical thinking rubric applied to score all student responses and quantify the study’s effectiveness. Thematic analysis was also conducted to gain additional insights. The findings revealed that the guided integration of ChatGPT-3.5 into the assessment did not result in a statistically significant increase in critical thinking rubric scores. However, specific trends emerged, leading to recommendations for instructors on how to effectively incorporate ChatGPT into their assessments. Video Abstract: https://youtu.be/KiiozCb9sjk?si=MPX-CvGkhwXjE69j