Building Thinkers in the AI Era
Dr. Arun Prakash
The simplest way to write this article would be asking AI tools to write a beautiful article with my inputs. It would be quite effective, quite impressive and immediate purpose of my writing may also get fulfilled.
But then, will it really be my writing?
Will it reflect my forty-plus years of experience in classrooms, my interactions with parents and my close encounters — yes, I am purposely using the word encounters, because teachers often feel exactly that while dealing with children — across different parts of the world?
It would miss my own anecdotes, my learnings, my experiences and, more than that, my personal attachment with this article. And perhaps then it would defeat the very purpose of writing this one.
Imagine this situation.
Teacher gives homework or a task. One child sincerely does it, circulates it in WhatsApp groups and children promptly copy and submit it to the teacher. Perfect or near-perfect answers reach the classroom, although everyone knows that real learning is missing. Yet teachers remain confused — should they punish or admire?
Problem is not AI.
Problem is that teaching had already become mechanical much before AI arrived. Predictable answers are sought by educators. Rote learning, guidebooks, coaching and tuition culture, expected questions, memorised essays and marks over understanding had already become normal features of our education system.
Over the years we rewarded reproduction more than reflection, and here AI fits perfectly.
“We spent decades training children to reproduce answers. AI simply became better at the game we created.”
AI can give instant information — often more accurate, more complete and more organised than humans. It serves almost every purpose asked from it. But learning remains minimal if children simply consume ready-made answers. Our mechanical system of learning had already started force-fitting knowledge into children without teaching them how and where to use it.
In many ways, education — especially in our part of the world — had already stopped producing thinking individuals. Teachers started looking for answers dictated by textbooks and guides, and the ability to reproduce them became the definition of intelligence.
But time has changed.
In one seminar Mr. Vijay K. Thadani said a very pertinent line:
“Today knowledge is obsolete.”
And he said this much before the AI boom.
Now even the basic aim of evaluation has changed. In a recent communication, policy makers clearly indicated a paradigm shift:
“Till now we were evaluating learners on the basis of knowledge they have acquired. But now we evaluate how much change has taken place in behaviour and skill of children in the process of learning.”
Unless educators understand this shift, AI will continue to dominate while real learning remains absent.
Calculators did not replace mathematics.
Internet did not abolish knowledge.
And AI will not stop learning.
But yes, AI can definitely encourage shallow learning — a generation that prefers ready-made food for the brain. And in that process, the mental muscles, neural pathways and connections which strengthen various faculties of the brain may not develop fully.
Actually, AI has exposed the fallacies already existing in our education system.
In one of my teacher training sessions, I asked teachers to name a few skills they felt would be relevant in coming years. Promptly they gave almost twenty skills — innovation, critical thinking, collaboration, communication and many more.
I was happy to see informed and awake educators.
Then I asked another question.
“Give one example of your conscious effort while teaching in classroom where you deliberately tried to build or strengthen any one of these skills.”
Answers came:
“We have assembly where leaders are built.”
“We conduct competitions.”
“We organise activities.”
I corrected them gently.
These things are there since ages and almost every school does them to some extent. My question was direct:
What conscious effort did you make while teaching your subject in your classroom?
Did you design your lesson plan in such a way that one or two skills were intentionally developed?
Silence followed.
We make lesson plans mainly to complete syllabus and provide knowledge. But we often fail to realise that today’s classrooms require skill development and behavioural transformation much more than mere information transfer.
This is perhaps the time for all of us to shake ourselves and rethink education — its methodology, its core philosophy and its delivery systems — if we really want to keep it relevant.
Today’s education should produce a thinking learner.
“A child who only memorises may score well today. A child who thinks deeply will survive tomorrow.”
A learner who asks “why?”, connects subjects, doubts respectfully, learns independently, reflects, experiments, explains concepts in simple language and is not afraid of mistakes.
A thinking child may sometimes score less in a memorisation-based system, but that child will survive much better in a fast-changing world.
Now education itself must change.
There should be project-based learning, debates, observation work, reflection journals, oral discussions, interdisciplinary learning and real-life problem solving. Naturally, evaluation patterns will also change and education will become more relevant to real-life challenges.
Teachers must now become mentors — designers of learning and creators of curiosity — not merely deliverers of information.
Parents too must stop asking only:
“How many marks did you get?”
Instead they should ask:
“What did you discover today?”
“What confused you today?”
“What made you think today?”
In the age of AI, human intelligence alone is not sufficient. We need humane intelligence.
Skills that matter most today are thinking, curiosity, wisdom, ethics, creativity, communication and healthy human relationships. Equally important is the ability to translate learning into real-life situations and adapt according to changing needs.
We are losing children to AI simply because children are getting addicted to ready-made answers, and AI is becoming the greatest ready-made answer provider.
But here comes the real question.
All this sounds wonderful — thinking classrooms, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, competency-based learning, growth mindset and so on. Every educator has heard these words repeatedly in trainings and seminars.
But how?
Can we honestly do it so easily?
Are teachers really prepared for such sudden transformation?
Perhaps we must first honestly accept one uncomfortable truth: most of us ourselves are products of rote learning systems. We were trained to memorise, reproduce and score. Very few of us were trained to think independently, design creative learning experiences or frame deep reflective questions.
So suddenly expecting teachers to become innovators overnight is unfair.
In fact, teachers today are perhaps more helpless than ever before.
Everywhere teachers are told:
“Bring critical thinking.”
“Create innovation.”
“Develop communication skills.”
“Promote experiential learning.”
“Build growth mindset.”
“Make competency-based questions.”
But very few people actually sit with teachers and show them how to do it practically inside a real classroom with forty children, syllabus pressure, time limitations and examination demands.
Most trainings still focus more on what should be done rather than how it can actually be done.
And let us be honest — creating truly thought-provoking questions is not easy.
Designing lessons connected to real life is not easy.
Building assessments based on creativity, application and reflection is not easy for every teacher, especially when teachers themselves were never exposed to such systems during their own education.
If an examination can be answered entirely by AI without original thinking, then perhaps the problem is not AI — perhaps the problem lies in the examination itself.
We need to ask children questions that require thinking, imagination, judgement and application.
Instead of merely asking students to define photosynthesis, why not ask:
- If plants wanted maximum sunlight, why did forests evolve in layers?
- Why are some leaves broad while others are needle-like?
- How would human life change if plants released a different gas instead of oxygen?
These are the places where learning actually begins.
We must train children not merely to answer questions, but to ask them.
AI can answer almost every question today. The real challenge for educators now is:
What kind of questions should we ask?
And perhaps this is exactly where AI itself can become a support system rather than a threat.
Fortunately, solution may also lie in AI itself.
The same AI which appears to threaten education can actually become one of the greatest support systems for teachers.
Today AI can help educators create lesson plans connected to daily life. It can suggest competency-based questions, project ideas, reflective activities and interdisciplinary approaches within seconds. It can help teachers frame better assessments, discussion prompts and skill-oriented classroom tasks.
You want competency-based learning? AI can help.
You want application-based questions? AI can help.
You want interdisciplinary connections? AI can help.
You want differentiated learning for different children? AI can help.
And all this can happen literally within seconds.
The role of teachers therefore does not reduce. In fact, it becomes even more important.
AI can generate content, but teachers bring experience, empathy, humane values, emotional understanding, cultural context and wisdom — things no machine can truly replace.
This is why the real need today is not fear of AI, but proper training in using AI meaningfully and ethically for education.
It is time to equip educators, not merely lecture them.
EdTech companies too now carry a major responsibility. They must stop making educational technology unnecessarily expensive and overcomplicated. Schools must invest in practical digital tools and genuinely equip teachers instead of merely expecting magical transformation through circulars and workshops.
Technology should simplify teaching, not intimidate teachers.
Unfortunately, many products today are either overpriced or designed in such complicated ways that average teachers feel even more nervous while using them.
Teachers do not need more pressure.
Teachers need support.
With this belief, through Prizdale AI, we are also trying to develop practical systems and programmes which help teachers teach better, frame better questions and make modern educational practices easier to implement in real classrooms.
The aim is not replacing teachers.
The aim is empowering teachers.
Because unless teachers themselves are empowered first, educational transformation will remain only a beautiful slogan discussed in seminars and printed in policy documents.
AI is therefore not the enemy.
It is a wake-up call.
The AI age will not create the greatest challenge because machines have become intelligent.
The greatest challenge will be ensuring that human beings remain humane, thoughtful, wise and deeply reflective.
And perhaps that is the true meaning of education.
“The greatest danger of AI is not that machines will start thinking like humans, but that humans may stop thinking for themselves.”