Written by Priscilla Gac-Artigas, PhD

Every child arrives in this world equipped with the tools to engage with it with curious eyes and an unbiased mind. They marvel at their surroundings and ask tons of questions. Unfortunately, their approach to learning gets disrupted when we, parents and teachers, shift them from interrogating the world to answering the questions that we –possessors of knowledge– pose to assess their learning. This disruption grows exponentially throughout their education, causing deficiencies in critical thinking and communication skills, and disengagement from the learning process. This disconnect can deepen in the A.I. era if the educational system keeps failing our youth. 

Reinventing Education

In a world where Humanities are in perennial danger; where soft skills are considered of lesser value or need; where the attempt to substitute thinking with algorithm alignment prevails; and where A.I. language model chatbots such as ChatGPT are revolutionizing education, the  challenges that I have undertaken in the classroom have taught me that reawakening students’ curiosity, teaching them to generate questions and developing their creative skills fosters learning autonomy and enhances critical thinking and communication abilities. Studies show that creativity strengthens literacy and critical thinking skills, but also students’ self-esteem and engagement, essential for their proactivity as agents of change. 

My efforts to apply methodologies that engage students passionately, develop their confidence and foster skills necessary to adapt quickly and innovatively to the vertiginous changes brought about by technology and A.I. have resulted in an advanced Spanish grammar and stylistic college course, Escribir para el cambio / “Writing for Change”. After obtaining successful results, in subsequent semesters I included the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) developed by The Right Question Institute, which proved its effectiveness in furthering my goals.  Presently (spring 2023), I am integrating the use of ChatGPT to reinforce students’ intellectual abilities and prepare them to face the challenges posed by the so-called large language models.

Thinking to Write, Writing to Change

Throughout the first version of the “Writing for Change” course, each lesson contained an opening quote by a renowned Hispanic author, two or three poems, a popular song, and a visual component that expressed the theme discussed. The texts selected were brief, varied, and thought-provoking. The goal was to find pleasure and meaning in the written word, not only in reading it but also in producing it.

As occurs in a ‘flipped classroom’, individual reading and written reflections establishing connections between the different texts were shared with the instructor. After discussing and analyzing these texts in class, students elaborated a new creative piece either individually, in small groups, or both. Topics covered included engaging current issues ranging from human rights, women’s rights and LGBTQI+ rights to racism, immigration, climate change, and gun control, to mention a few. The curriculum also included a one-hour weekly lab session where students reviewed grammar paradigms to enhance their writing abilities. This process gave them confidence to express their opinions and the ability to work collaboratively with peers. Students’ confidence, thinking, and creative abilities flourished as their cultural background expanded, transforming them from passive readers to inquisitive, critical readers and active creative writers. Feedback from students included the following:  

“The class encouraged us to question, reflect and ultimately create our own independent thinking. Not only did it help me with comprehension and writing, but to think about things more abstractly.”

“[the class] challenged me to use my creativity; I also learned how to work in a team and to understand and respect teamwork and other people's perspectives.

I can now express myself very easily through poetry.”

Course Evolution: Learning to Question

After completing  a workshop facilitated by The Right Question Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I integrated the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) into the course. It is a simple but powerful technique for teaching students to formulate their own questions, instead of just requesting them to answer my own. For each unit, they were instructed to, first, reflect on a quote and its connection to their expectations of the unit content based on the resources provided, and secondly, to formulate three questions they expected would be answered in the resources provided, or general questions on the topic that they were curious about. 

Reflecting, questioning, and reading to satisfy their own curiosity was revolutionary and pivotal to student success. It subverted the vertical structure of the classroom, something that I had been trying to provoke throughout my teaching career; students became protagonists of their learning process, enjoying the powerful feeling of being a confident, curious, risk-taking, creative individual, something asserted in some of their comments:

 I found it a different and risky methodology because it is easier to answer questions than to ask them. By asking questions, we take ownership of our education and lives and remain in control. Through questions, we can see life from an empowering perspective and that is how we create change in the world.

 I liked formulating questions before reading because it made me curious about the subject and gave me something to look forward to while reading.

 I appreciated this because I wasn’t reading to answer questions, I was reading to understand and have meaningful conversations with my peers. It was less stressful and more meaningful. 

 Thanks to the strategies used in the course, students felt part of a learning community where all voices were heard and respected; no one felt marginalized. They gained confidence in their creative abilities and the power of their voices.

Fostering Inquisitive Minds through AI

The current stage of my research is incorporating the use of ChatGPT to enhance students’ thinking and writing processes. I compare it to the universal library imagined by Borges, a tool that, if used effectively, can maximize the scope of students work.

While most schools are concerned with combatting the rampant plagiarism made even easier by ChatGPT, my biggest concern is how to prepare students to scrutinize the universe of data that it contains responsibly, with inquisitive minds and through a critical lens while, at the same time, reflecting on relevant questions such as: who is behind these language models? Who decides who can use them and how? Who profits from their use and commercialization? How can we stray from their powerful, persuasive language and instead use their stored information to reflect, ask questions, make connections, come to our own conclusions, create, and make new proposals? 

Final Thoughts

In the 16th century, when the “Old World” took over the “New” and altered its future forever, the mystic Spanish writer Santa  Teresa de  Jesus (1515-1582) prevented us from being fooled with a few “glass beads” if we wanted to preserve our independence when faced with  any oppressive power, be it machine – A.I. – or human: Lee y conducirás, no leas y serás conducido / “Read and you will lead, do not read and you will be led.” 

In this revolutionary A.I. era, professors should overcome their fear of A.I. in the classroom, embrace changes, and engage students in using A.I. as an additional learning resource to further their knowledge and performance.

Providing an education that efficiently fosters curiosity, wondering, and creativity, and enhancing it with the benefits or advantages of language models, is paramount to empowering students to “lead” and not “be led” by A.I. The teaching/learning approach of “Writing for Change”, enriched by the use of ChatGPT, is doing its part. In the words of a student, it “instills a fire in me and motivates me to be the change I want to see in the world.” What, if not that, should be the purpose of a well-rounded education?

This paper was possible thanks to a Summer Faculty scholarship 2022 from Monmouth university 

References:

[1] Sample of works by students in the “Writing for Change” classes:

“Un mundo igual” /Writing for change. Hawk Talk. Student presentation mirroring the TED Talks during the annual Student Scholarship Week Event at Monmouth University,  April 2018.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp1DCE8v-m4>.

“La literatura y el arte para un mundo mejor” / Literature And Art For A Better World. Hawk Talk. Student presentation mirroring the TED Talks during the annual Student Scholarship Week Event at Monmouth University, April 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g7fPIt5baQ&t=43s>.

“AI as an Additional Tool to Foster Curiosity, Questioning Abilities and Creativity.” Emma Cooper and Emily Loscialpo. Student presentation during the annual Student Scholarship Week Event at Monmouth University, April 2023.

About the Author:

Priscilla Gac-Artigas, PhD. Fulbright Scholar, Full Member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE)/Correspondent Member of the RAE (Royal Academy of Spanish), Professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Monmouth University, NJ. Author of Colectficción: sobrepasando los límites de la autoficción (Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2022), a volume of essays where the theory of collectfiction, a term coined by her, is applied to works by Hispanic writers and artists where the authors subvert the conventional reading pact to de-particularize the story and call for the active and creative participation of the reader in its reconfiguration to give way to a collective story.

Published Pieces:

“Cobarde aquel que se esconde: Alza tu voz por Venezuela”. ViceVersa Magazine. N. p., 24 May, 2018. Web. 19 Nov. 2018 <https://www.viceversa-mag.com/cobarde-aquel-que-se-esconde-alza-tu-voz-por-venezuela/>.