Better answers, broader thinking: What students gain from ChatGPT and critical-thinking training
In a randomized trial with over 1,000 undergraduates, ChatGPT access raised work quality while causal reasoning training increased idea diversity.
- Students with GPT-4o access scored nearly a full point higher on a five-point scale and produced work closer to expert submissions.
- Causal-reasoning exercises did not raise rubric scores but produced a wider, more distinct range of student ideas.
- Combining ChatGPT access with critical-thinking training yielded the highest gains across rubric scores, idea counts, and logical coherence.
Educators evaluating AI adoption have empirical data showing that AI improves answer structure while explicit reasoning training is required to foster original ideas.
