Guiding Pedagogical Principles in an Age of AI

Overview

In an era of nearly ubiquitous AI access, it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters both to students and instructors about the core work of teaching and learning. What are the core principles and values that make a classroom experience meaningful?

The challenge is not simply to make assignments “AI-proof”, but to design learning experiences that make human effort feel worthwhile. This page invites you to consider a possible framework that you might use to inform the development of assignments or class activities. Rather than beginning with the question “how do I stop students from using AI?”, this framework helps start with “what conditions make students more likely to invest in the learning?”

“I Care,” “I Can,” “I Matter”

In their book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, authors José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson argue that assignments in the era of GenAI need to be designed to “increase human effort” (p. 184-5). After all, many GenAI assignments can make learning experiences almost completely frictionless, which can reduce both students’ motivation and capacity to exercise critical thinking skills. Bowen and Watson provide a framework to summarize the drives that motivate students, namely:

Table modified from Bowen and Watson (2024), p. 187

In many ways, this is not a brand-new AI-specific framework. But it’s a reminder that in a context where students can more easily bypass parts of the learning process, some long-standing principles of teaching become even more important.

Examples of Activating Purpose: “I Care”

Even before the era of ubiquitous access to GenAI, activating students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has long been a challenge. After all, students’ senses of motivation inherently differ and not all students find the same parts of a course motivating or compelling. So, AI does not create this problem, but it might intensify it. When students don't understand why an assignment matters, or what it is helping them learn, they might be more likely to approach it as something to complete “efficiently”, rather than something to “think through carefully.” Recognizing that students may find their sense of purpose activated at different points in a course, instructors may wish to consider:

• Where and when in a course can I give students room to make a choice about how to engage? When students feel like they can make a choice about, say, a topic to research or even have an option for how to submit an assignment, they may be more motivated to complete the assignment. That is, they may feel a stronger sense of caring about the assignment if they’ve had some opportunity – even a small one – for choosing how to engage with it.
• Where and how can I attempt to make course content relevant to my students’ lives and/or “the real world?” While not everything in a course has to be directly relevant to each and every student’s particular experiences, helping students see where course content connects with their lived and/or prior experiences or why a concept matters within a discipline, may help students feel more motivated to understand its value for their thinking.
• Where and when can I activate students’ senses of curiosity and joy in this class? Feeling and experiencing joy is extremely motivating. Are there ways that certain topics, activities, or engagements in your class can inspire joy? Recognizing that learning itself may not necessarily be “entertaining,” where are there small moments where you can bring levity, fun, laughter, or interest into the mix?

Examples of Activating Self-Efficacy: “I Can”

Learning should be challenging, but students may feel less motivated to take on the challenge if they feel that the barrier to entry is prohibitively high. And when that barrier is so high that it is out of reach, students are more likely to offload their thinking to GenAI. That is, students may turn to AI if they don’t know how/where to begin. To encourage students to take on the challenges intrinsic to the learning experience, consider:

• Are there ways I can scaffold an assignment or activity before students take on a big or challenging task? The more that lower stakes opportunities or gradual opportunities can be brought in before students take on a bigger or more challenging task, the better. The completion of smaller tasks or assignments can give students the momentum they need to keep taking on harder and more challenging assignments on their own. The goal is not chunking everything into smaller pieces, but to identify where students are most likely to stall and provide enough support to help them get started. This might mean a sample model or more explicit process guidance.
• Are there ways I can reduce stigma or shame around failure in my class? Failure is intrinsic to learning, but courses are often designed to treat mistakes as evidence of inability. Are there ways to make room for necessary failure in your own class context that may destigmatize the experience of failure?

Examples of Activating Belonging: “I Matter”

It is easy for students to disengage or offload engagement to GenAI if they feel that their own individual contributions ultimately do not matter to their instructors or their peers. Helping students feel seen in their class contexts and by their instructors will likely support students’ feelings of belonging and motivate their interests in the course. To cultivate a greater sense of belonging in your own courses, consider:

• What are some ways to help students get to know each other in this class? What are some ways to help students get to know me in this class? While many instructors may include “ice-breaker” or community-building activities during the first day or week of class, these kinds of activities may have only limited efficacy for helping students feel truly connected to you and to each other. Consider how students can build accountability with each other and with you. This may mean incorporating more group and collaborative assignments where, for example, students may contribute collectively to study guides or community-oriented projects.
• What are some ways to make the learning tasks feel more authentic and less performative? Students might feel like their input and contributions matter less if they are simply performing for the instructor. Are there ways that students can demonstrate their learning that capture their own experiences? Their own way of thinking through the content? For example, you might consider opportunities where students can bring in examples from their local communities or contexts. This could mean something as simple as explicitly asking students to call on prior knowledge from an earlier schooling context. It could also mean asking students to do something bigger, like interview a member of their community to gauge their understanding of a topic within your course. The way that you may choose to have students capture their own experiences will likely differ depending on their own course context, but choosing even one additional way that students could bring their own sense of self into the course directly can demonstrably help students recognize the authenticity and relevance of the assignment.

Closing Reflections

It may not necessarily be possible to take all of the suggestions from the “I Care, I Can, I Matter” framework into your course. However, even attempting to make one change that helps students activate a stronger sense of purpose, self-efficacy, or belonging may be a way to respond to the potential for students to shortcut deep learning and critical engagement in your course context.