Generative AI · Education leadership

Actionable companion · Assessment and evidence of learning

From evidence to district action: Enhancing or Hindering? The Moderating Role of Self-Regulated Learning in the Relationship Between GenAI Usage and Higher-Order Thinking Skills Among Chinese University Students

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 The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into educational settings has raised growing concerns regarding its potential influence on students’ higher-order thinking skills. However, existing findings remain inconclusive, and the role of individual factors in shaping these effects has received limited attention. Drawing on self-regulated learning theory, this study examined the relationships between GenAI usage and three higher-order thinking skills, critical thinking, creative thinking, and computational thinking, and investigated the moderating role of self-regulated learning. The results indicated that the associations between GenAI use and higher-order thinking skills varied across levels of self-regulated learning. Specifically, among students with lower levels of self-regulated learning, GenAI use was negatively associated with critical thinking, creative thinking, and computational thinking. In contrast, among students with higher levels of self-regulated learning, GenAI use was positively associated with critical thinking and computational thinking, while its association with creative thinking was not significant. Furthermore, self-regulated learning was positively associated with all three higher-order thinking skills and significantly moderated the relationships between GenAI use and critical thinking, creative thinking, and computational thinking. These findings highlight the complex cognitive consequences of GenAI usage and underscore the importance of self-regulated learning in shaping students’ cognitive outcomes in AI-assisted learning environments. The study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how GenAI influences higher-order thinking and provides implications for promoting effective and responsible AI use in education. Keywords: GenAI, self-regulated learning, higher-order thinking

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

Shuangshuang Li; Jin Tian; Mengting Chen; Ziyue Wang. Enhancing or Hindering? The Moderating Role of Self-Regulated Learning in the Relationship Between GenAI Usage and Higher-Order Thinking Skills Among Chinese University Students. Journal of Intelligence (2026-09-01). https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence14090208

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.