The Impact of AI on Students’ Reading, Critical Thinking, and Problem-Solving Skills
Mohammed Zeinu Hassen · American Journal of Education and Information Technology · 2025
The integration of Artificial Intelligence into instructional ecosystems represents a paradigm shift. It has profound implications for student cognitive development. This article presents an analysis of the effect of AI on three cornerstone capabilities of education. These are reading, critical thinking, and problem-solving. AI offers extraordinary opportunities for personalized gaining knowledge of and adaptive comments. It also introduces great dangers. These include cognitive offloading, intellectual passivity, and the erosion of deep engagement. This paper employs a qualitative approach. It proposes a conceptual framework of “Cognitive Augmentation vs. Cognitive Atrophy” to dissect this duality. The evaluation suggests AI’s impact isn’t always monolithic. It is closely contingent on pedagogical strategy, tool design, and scholar mindset. AI gear can act as effective Socratic partners and simulators. They can help develop superior skills. They are also able to function as “solution engines” that shortcut vital cognitive methods. This could probably lead to a decline in foundational skills. The dialogue examines the interconnected nature of those capabilities. It argues that a decline in deep studying can immediately impair the raw fabric wished for crucial wondering. This in turn cripples trouble-solving. The article concludes with a fixed of actionable pointers for educators, policymakers, AI builders, and college students. It advocates for a human-targeted technique that leverages AI as a tool to enhance human intellect, in preference to replace it. The central thesis is that addressing the age of AI in education requires a deliberate focus. Promoting AI literacy and metacognitive awareness is necessary to ensure that technology serves as a catalyst for cognitive growth, not a crutch for cognitive decline.