Space, Time, and Social Interaction: How AI Disrupts the Learning Process
Authors
Jiuyue Wang
Share
Annotation
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT, turning Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) from a relatively specialized technology into a widely accessible tool. Its rapid spread quickly reached schools and classrooms, where it became an increasingly useful tool for students for brainstorming, researching, and writing. The rapid adoption of student-facing Large Language Models (LLMs) has caused an unprecedented disruption that has prompted rare, immediate responses from top academic institutions, weighing both the benefits and drawbacks of the technology. This paper investigates how student-facing LLMs alter the fundamental nature of education through three essential dimensions: time, intellectual space, and social interaction. By tracing the development of American education from the Socratic ideal of intellectual struggle to the 19th-century industrial “factory model” of schooling, the study establishes a philosophical baseline for meaningful learning rooted in “productive friction.” This paper also considers how the design and commercial purpose of GenAI threatens to alter the learning process. Ultimately this paper argues that LLMs, which are designed to be highly accessible and responsive to users, can move education further away from the characters it is trying to cultivate in students. This paper ends with why and how educators should work towards preserving the productive struggle that meaningful learning requires.
Keywords
Authors
Jiuyue Wang
Share
References:
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.
Biesta, G. (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: On the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, vol. 21, no. 1: 33-46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9064-9
Biesta, G. (2013). The beautiful risk of education. Paradigm Publishers.
Bjork, R. A. (1994). Memory and metamemory considerations in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A. P. Shimamura (Eds.), Metacognition: Knowing about knowing (pp. 185–205). The MIT Press.
Bulle, N. (2017). Educating “modern mind” in the light of the evolution of Western educational thought. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, vol. 42, no. 4: 253-279.
Chi, M. T., & Wylie, R. (2014). The ICAP framework: Linking cognitive engagement to active learning outcomes. Educational Psychologist, vol. 49, no. 4: 219-243.
Deng, Ruiqi, Maoli Jiang, Xinlu Yu, Yuyan Lu, Shasha Liu, (2025). Does ChatGPT enhance student learning? A systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies. Computers & Education, Volume 227, 105224, ISSN 0360-1315.
Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. The School Journal, vol. 54, no. 3, 77-80.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Macmillan.
Engle, R. A., & Conant, F. R. (2002). Guiding Principles for Fostering Productive Disciplinary Engagement: Explaining an Emergent Argument in a Community of Learners Classroom. Cognition and Instruction, 20(4), 399–483. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532690XCI2004_1
Grundy, S. (1987). Curriculum: Product or praxis? Falmer Press.
Kapur, M. (2014). Productive Failure in Learning Math. Cognitive Science, 38: 1008-1022. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12107
Kasneci, E., Sessler, K., Küchemann, S., Bannert, M., Dementieva, D., Fischer, F., Gasser, U., Groh, G., Günnemann, S., Hüllermeier, S., Krusche, S., Kutyniok, E., Michaeli, T., Nerdel, C., Pfeffer, J., Poquet, O., Sailer, M., Schmidt, A., Seidel, T., ... & Kasneci, G. (2023). ChatGPT for good? On opportunities and challenges of large language models for education. Learning and Individual Differences, 103, 102274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2023.102274
Katz, Michael B. (1976). “The Origins of Public Education: A Reassessment.” History of Education Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 4: 381-407, https://doi.org/10.2307/367722.
Lodge, J. M., de Barba, P., & Broadbent, J. (2023). Learning with generative artificial intelligence within a network of co-regulation. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 20(7), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.53761/1.20.7.02
Lodge, Jason & Yang, Suijing & Furze, Leon & Dawson, Phillip. (2023). It’s not like a calculator, so what is the relationship between learners and generative artificial intelligence? Learning: Research and Practice. 9. 117-124. 10.1080/23735082.2023.2261106.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton University Press.
Olkhovyk, M., & Gergul, S. (2021). Ancient methods of critical thinking in teacher education: From Paideia to epistemic virtues. Educational Discourse, vol. 35, no. 3: 25-36.
Pannabecker, J. R. (1995). Exploring the intellectual foundation of technology education: From Condorcet to Dewey. Journal of Technology Education, vol. 7 no. 1, 43-56.
Peters, Michael & Jackson, Liz & Papastephanou, Marianna & Jandric, Petar & Lazaroiu, George & Evers, Colin & Cope, Bill & Kalantzis, Mary & Araya, Daniel & Tesar, Marek & Mika, Carl & Chen, Lei & Wang, Chengbing & Sturm, Sean & Rider, Sharon & Fuller, Steve. (2023). AI and the future of humanity: ChatGPT-4, philosophy and education – Critical responses. Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 56: 1-35. 10.1080/00131857.2023.2213437.
Peters, M. A., Jackson, L., Papastephanou, M., Jandrić, P., Lazaroiu, G., Evers, C. W., Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., Araya, D., Tesar, M., Mika, C., Chen, L., Wang, C., Sturm, S., Rider, S., & Fuller, S. (2024). AI and the future of humanity: ChatGPT-4, philosophy and education – Critical responses. Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 56, no. 9, 828-862. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2023.2213437
Plato. (1991). The republic (A. Bloom, Trans.). Basic Books. (Original work published ca. 375 B.C.E.)
Plato. (1997). Meno. In J. M. Cooper (Ed.), Plato: Complete works (pp. 870-897). Hackett Publishing.
Postman, N., & Weingartner, C. (1969). Teaching as a subversive activity. Delacorte Press.
“Report – AI and Education.” (2026). Mit.Edu, https://aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/
Rudolph, J., Tan, S., & Tan, S. (2023). ChatGPT: Bullshit spewer or the end of traditional assessments in higher education? Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 342-363.
Sharma, Mrinank, Meg Tong, Tomasz Korbak, David Duvenaud, Amanda Askell, Samuel R. Bowman, Newton Cheng, Esin Durmus, Zac Hatfield-Dodds, Scott R. Johnston, Shauna Kravec, Timothy Maxwell, Sam McCandlish, Kamal Ndousse, Oliver Rausch, Nicholas Schiefer, Da Yan, Miranda Zhang, Ethan Perez (2023). Towards understanding sycophancy in language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.13548. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13548
Sharpe, M. (n.d.). Pierre Hadot (1922—2010). In the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/hadot/
Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., & Guest, R. (2020). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skill development and employability. Studies in Higher Education, vol. 45, no. 11: 2132-2148.
Spring, J. (2017). The American school: From the Puritans to the Trump era (10th ed.). Routledge.
Su, J., & Yang, W. (2023). Unlocking the power of ChatGPT: A framework for applying generative AI in education. ECNU Review of Education, vol. 6, no. 3: 355-366.
Tyton Partners. (2023). "Time for Class 2023: Bridging Student and Faculty Perspectives on Digital Learning." Tyton Partners, tytonpartners.com/time-for-class-2023.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2023). Artificial intelligence and the future of teaching and learning: Insights and recommendations. Washington, DC. https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/documents/ai-report/ai-report.pdf
Ullman, T. (2023). Large language models fail on trivial alterations to theory-of-mind tasks. arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.08399. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2302.08399
Walton Family Foundation. (2023). "ChatGPT Used by Teachers More Than Students, New Survey Shows." Walton Family Foundation, 1 Mar., www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/learning/understanding-teacher-and-student-views-on-chatgpt.
