genuine pedagogical question not a rhetorical one
i’m trying to form an evidence-based view on this. the policy question (should students use AI) is separate from the outcome question (what does AI use do to the quality of student learning and work). i’m more interested in the second one.
does the process of generating AI output and then editing it toward human-sounding prose develop any useful skills? or does it mostly produce students who are good at editing and poor at generating original ideas? has anyone seen or studied this?
from classroom observation rather than formal research: the students who use AI and engage seriously with the editing process do develop certain skills. evaluating argument structure, recognizing generic language, identifying where a piece lacks specificity. these are real editing skills.
what they don’t develop: the generative struggle. the part where you don’t know what you think until you’ve tried to write it. that’s what AI use most directly removes from the learning process and it’s the part i think matters most for intellectual development
the research on this is thin but emerging. early findings suggest AI-assisted students produce work that is more conventionally competent but less distinctive. higher floor, lower ceiling. which may be fine for professional writing contexts and a significant problem for academic development contexts.
the humanization step specifically hasn’t been studied as a separate variable, which is a gap in the literature
from a cognitive psychology standpoint: the learning happens in the struggle, not the output. if AI removes the productive struggle and replaces it with an editing task, students are practicing a different skill than the one the assignment was designed to develop.
editing is a skill. it’s just not the skill writing assignments are usually trying to build. the disconnect between the task (write an essay) and the competency being developed (editing AI output) is the pedagogical problem
ngl this question assumes the assignment is developing something worth developing. for CS students writing a lab report for a gen ed requirement: i’m not losing sleep over whether my AI editing skills are suboptimal. the assignment doesn’t connect to anything i care about developing.
the answer to your question probably depends entirely on whether the student is intrinsically motivated to learn the underlying skill
the professional parallel: content professionals who started with AI from the beginning are developing a different skill set than those who learned to write without it. the skills are real. they’re just different skills. whether they’re the skills educational institutions should be teaching is a values question, not an outcome question