I think the answers to these questions will be helpful to instructors struggling with students' abuses of LLMs.

10! Yes, this comment is deliberately persuasive language but not written by an LLM! 🤓

9/9 In the end, students have to actually be able to do the hard critical thinking unaided. It's about developing the cognitive strength for that, i.e. cognitive workouts, rather than taking all the effort out of the process.

8/9 But "short-circuiting" generative learning activities with an LLM will more than likely reduce learning, not support it.

7/9 There is definitely benefit from purposefully observing others perform critical thinking learning activities (the worked example effect) & examining finished products of critical thinking (what John Hattie calls "success criteria").

6/9 Simply put: LLMs = No SOI = No critical thinking about the learning content

5/9 Reading the results of someone or something else's SOI activities isn't the same as students actually doing the SOI themselves. It's like trying to get fit by looking at athletes.

4/9 Using an LLM prevents or at least discourages students from engaging in learning activities that require them to select, organise, & integrate information. Reading the results of someone or something else's SOI activities isn't the same as students actually doing the SOI themselves.

3/9 Students mostly learn the content thoroughly through activities that include selecting, organising, & integrating (SOI) elements from the content (the so called "SOI principle" AKA learning as a generative activity - See the work of Logan Fiorella et al.).

2/9 Students won't get to the point of being able to think critically about learning content if they haven't learnt it thoroughly enough.

7/7 ELT specific: Swan, M. (2008). Talking Sense about Learning Strategies. RELC Journal, 39(2), 262–273. doi.org/10.1177/0033...

6/7 In general: Willingham, D. (2006). The Usefulness of Brief Instruction in Reading Comprehension Strategies [Institution Website]. American Federation of Teachers. www.aft.org/ae/winter200...

5/7 Here's a couple of position pieces that review the best available evidence & discuss the problems with teaching all reading strategies to all students:

4/7 When you ask a real expert, "It's complicated." or "It depends." is what they'll typically say. It's a good idea to listen to what these experts have to say. Our students are depending on us to understand & act on it.

3/7 That's not true.

2/7 Predictably, it just listed the well-known strategies that we see in most ITE programmes & embedded in typical coursebooks... all assuming that they're always good for all students all the time.