AI Era Learning Outsourcing: Experts Propose "Think, Use, Check, Revise" 4 Principles

TAIPEI, June 20 (CNA) The development of AI has impacted the education system. To prevent students from relying on AI for answers and engaging in "learning outsourcing," experts suggest adhering to the "Think, Use, Check, Revise" principles, emphasizing verification, comparison, and reorganization, rather than directly accepting answers.

In recent years, generative AI tools have developed rapidly. When students ask AI for homework answers, they can often obtain them quickly. However, this approach bypasses the entire process of critical thinking, organization, memorization, and output. In the long run, this can lead to dependency and even severe "learning outsourcing."

Yeh Chia-hung, Director-General of the Ministry of Education's Department of Information and Technology Education, told CNA in an interview that AI's impact goes beyond just providing a learning tool; teaching and assessment methods must also change. Previously, the focus was on correct answers, but in the future, the thinking process will be more important.

"When finding answers becomes easy, the focus is on cultivating the ability to verify, analyze, judge, and reflect," Yeh Chia-hung said. In the AI era, students need to learn to ask questions. After obtaining preliminary answers, they also need to be able to summarize key points, ask further questions, reflect, and revise.

Kuo Po-chen, President of National Taichung University of Education, also mentioned in a phone interview with CNA that more and more university professors are discovering that many students simply paste AI-generated answers into their reports. Not only do they fail to cite literature, but some even generate "non-existent" literature. The same situation is occurring in homework for elementary and secondary schools.

Kuo Po-chen believes that in the AI era, teachers' methods of assigning homework should be adjusted. They should no longer solely pursue answers but should guide students to follow the "Think, Use, Check, Revise" principles: first think, then use AI, further verify, revise, and organize the language.

For example, in a science class asking "Does water always boil at 100 degrees Celsius under any circumstances?", AI might give a simplified answer like "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius." At this point, teachers can guide students to ask follow-up questions such as "Does this statement have any prerequisites?" "What happens when atmospheric pressure changes?" "Why does water boil faster at higher altitudes?" This helps students think about what conditions the AI's answer missed, whether it was oversimplified, lacked conditions, or ignored context.

In social studies, when asking AI to explain historical events or policies, teachers should also guide students not to believe the answers directly. They should ask AI to provide sources, consider whether the sources truly exist, whether there is support from other reliable data, whether the author, year, and title are correct, and whether AI has mixed different pieces of information.

Kuo Po-chen pointed out that traditional education methods often involve listening to lectures in class and doing "practice problems" for homework. With the introduction of AI tools, students can get more timely feedback on what they got right and wrong, and where they need to improve, and then organize their notes and highlight key points. Research shows that "comprehensive learners" who can effectively use various platform tools often achieve better learning outcomes. Therefore, there is no need to worry about children using AI, but rather to pay attention to whether they are using it correctly. (Edited by Li Shu-hua) 06/20/115

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