Relationship Between Intensity of Generative Artificial Intelligence Use, Critical Thinking, and Self-Efficacy in Secondary School Students

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:
The aim of the research is to analyse the relationship between the intensity and manner of generative AI use, levels of critical thinking, and self-efficacy in final-year secondary school students. Special attention is paid to distinguishing between active and passive modes of interaction with AI, and to the influence of students’ individual cognitive abilities on these relationships.

METHODOLOGY:
The research combines standardised psychometric instruments and questionnaire surveys conducted with approximately 2,000 final-year students involved in National Comparative Examinations (standardised aptitude tests administered to Czech secondary school students). Students completed a battery of tests assessing their critical thinking, self-efficacy, trust in AI technologies and patterns of generative AI use. After verifying that the individual questionnaire items and measurement scales were reliable, we first explored the basic relationships between variables using correlation analysis. We then tested hypotheses about moderating effects using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in R.

RESULTS:
Data analysis is still underway, but preliminary results suggest that the relationship between critical thinking and the intensity of AI use is very weak. The mode of use appears to be a more significant variable – specifically, whether it involves passive use, where AI responses are simply adopted without modification, and active use, where AI is used, for instance, to verify one’s own work or to engage in dialogue with it.

OUTPUTS (PUBLICATIONS, LINKS AND NETWORKS):
We presented our preliminary results at the XXXIII Annual Conference of the Czech Educational Research Association entitled ‘Development and Perspectives: Research and Education in the 21st Century’ on 4 September 2025 in Olomouc.

We are currently preparing an article for a peer-reviewed journal that will examine in detail the relationship between critical thinking and AI use, as well as the moderators of this relationship.