Traditional homework assignments and class activities often presume the final work product demonstrates critical thinking without explicitly training students on the discrete critical thinking components. With access to AI, students may take shortcuts to complete assignments, missing critical thinking development. The session will break down critical thinking into discrete, trainable component skills (fact and source verification, logic, contextual analysis, and ethics) and then demonstrate how educators can create exercises to teach those skills and deepen critical thinking for students of all ages, using both AI and non-AI activities.

Learning objectives:

• Apply individual critical thinking steps to formative and summative assessments.
• Create evaluations that reinforce critical thinking development that cannot be reproduced using AI.
• Produce formative assessments that incorporate AI into lessons that further students critical thinking skills.