Effectiveness and Incorporation of Critical Thinking Skills in the Usage of Artificial Intelligence among Biology Education Undergraduates

Abstract

Limited adoption, lack of focus, low attention span, and repeated low performance in biology topics requiring higher order evaluation has been the recent cry of scholars despite the evolution of AI in education. This became a concern to Education technologist, Curriculum Developers, Evaluators and Designers. This study aims to investigate the extent of effectiveness and incorporation of critical thinking skills in the usage of artificial intelligence among biology education undergraduates; it also evaluate the perception of biology education students towards the effective usage of AI tools, assess the extent to which critical thinking skills are incorporated into the use of AI generative response in biology, among biology education students and, examine the extent of effect of critical thinking skills incorporated into the use of AI generative responses in biology to the academic performance of biology education students.  A quasi- experimental research design incorporating a pre-test – post-test approach was used, involving 36 Biology Education students from University of Lagos, Nigeria. The three valid and reliable instruments, Biology Achievement Test (KR-20=0.89), Students’ Perception and Usage Questionnaire (Cronbach α=0.86), and Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) Assessment Tool in Biology (Cronbach α=0.90), were used for data collection. Findings revealed a statistically significant difference in the perception of biology education students towards the effective usage of AI tools, and a significant difference in the extent of incorporation of critical thinking skills into the use of AI generative responses in biology among biology education students. This study recommends the urgent need for update to include modules on "AI Literacy in Science Education", training of neonate teachers in the appropriate and legitimate use AI tools for brainstorming, problem solving and swift achievement of the curriculum goals and objectives, thereby reducing the running cost of large classroom size for hands-on experiments, and the use of technology.