Generative AI · Education leadership

Actionable companion · Assessment and evidence of learning

From evidence to district action: Generative AI Use and Critical Thinking Dispositions in Higher Education: A Cross-Sample Study of the Sequential Role of Metacognitive Weakness and Epistemic Laziness

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. The district actions are proposed applications, not findings or recommendations attributed to the original authors. No additional peer review is asserted.

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Evidence and context

Confirm the study population, setting and task before applying its findings to your district.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the linked source license:

Abstract As generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technologies become increasingly integrated into university students’ academic routines, concerns have emerged regarding their associations with critical thinking dispositions during GAI use. The main objective of the present study was to examine whether metacognitive weakness and epistemic laziness individually and sequentially accounted for the association between GAI tool usage and critical thinking dispositions during GAI use across two distinct student samples. The Turkish-speaking sample consisted of 441 students, whereas the English-speaking sample included 218 students. Participants completed measures assessing GAI tool usage, critical thinking dispositions in GAI use, metacognitive weakness in GAI use, and epistemic laziness. Measurement invariance analyses indicated configural and metric invariance across groups. Path analyses revealed that GAI tool usage had significant indirect associations with lower critical thinking dispositions during GAI use via metacognitive weakness, epistemic laziness, and a sequential indirect pathway involving both constructs. The sequential indirect associations were significant in both the Turkish-speaking sample and the English-speaking sample. Overall, the findings suggest that greater GAI tool usage among university students is associated with lower critical thinking dispositions, with this association statistically carried through metacognitive weakness and epistemic laziness. The consistency of this pattern across two distinct student samples provides preliminary support for a process-oriented interpretation of how GAI use may relate to critical thinking dispositions. Keywords: artificial intelligence, critical thinking dispositions, metacognitive weakness, epistemic laziness, university students

A 90-day district pilot

  1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Have the curriculum lead and a teacher read the methods and limitations. Record the study design, sample, comparator, outcomes and evidence gaps. Define a local question that the study can help inform.
  2. Days 16–30 · Design. Redesign one low-stakes assessment: require a first attempt, an AI-assisted revision, a source-check log and a short oral explanation. Use the same rubric for the comparison task. Name an accountable owner and set the baseline, success threshold and budget before implementation.
  3. Days 31–60 · Test. Start with a small voluntary cohort, preserve an accessible non-AI route and require teacher review. Use synthetic or de-identified examples; approve data handling and tool terms through district processes.
  4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Blind-score reasoning, factual accuracy and unaided transfer on a fresh task. Record suspected misconduct separately from demonstrated evidence. Compare with baseline, document uncertainty and stop or revise if learning worsens, access is unequal or critical errors persist.

The board decision brief

Report the learning problem, evidence quality, participating population, total cost including review time, measured benefit, errors, access differences and remaining uncertainties. Make a dated recommendation to stop, revise or expand. A positive perception survey alone does not establish learning improvement.

Attribution and reuse

Kağan Kırcaburun. Generative AI Use and Critical Thinking Dispositions in Higher Education: A Cross-Sample Study of the Sequential Role of Metacognitive Weakness and Epistemic Laziness. Journal of Intelligence (2026-07-13). https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence14070147

Companion prepared 2026-10-30. Original authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract is an attributed source extract; the implementation plan is new AI-assisted editorial material, offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license. This guide has not undergone independent peer review.