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Chaya Jain, President
AI Dependency as a Shared Temptation - A Process-Education-Oriented Reflection
AI is reshaping how we teach and learn, and the challenge extends far beyond student misuse. All of us feel the pull of AI’s speed and convenience. Even asking AI to help refine this message mirrors the same temptation our students face: letting the tool think for us rather than with us.
This conflict pushed me into a Process-Education-oriented reflection. What surfaced matters, because PE is grounded in metacognition, productive struggle, self‑assessment, and ownership of thinking. When AI shortcuts these processes, the final product may look polished, but the learner’s development is diminished.
AI‑supported stealth plagiarism adds another layer of risk—a quiet dependency that replaces pieces of our own creative and reflective work. Many educators also feel outpaced by younger colleagues who more quickly adapt to AI‑resistant assessment design, prompting us to wonder whether our long‑trusted methods have suddenly become outdated. Yet with reflection, that sense of obsolescence becomes an invitation to intentional growth.
The conclusion is clear: AI is not the enemy—quiet dependency is. If we stay centered on the core PE processes that build learning capability, we can help students—and ourselves—use AI responsibly while keeping authentic learning at the heart of our community. A few small, manageable shifts can protect learning without overwhelming our workload:
- making thinking visible through short reflections
- using quick oral check‑ins
- requiring transparent AI use
- revising one assignment at a time to strengthen integrity
Recognizing that learning is an inherently human phenomenon, a discerning AI user can actually optimize their brain’s architecture—offering a renewed opportunity to leverage neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt and rewire in response to new experiences. |
