AI and Deeper Learning: Promises, Paradoxes, and Evolving Practices

This book serves as a guide for educators seeking to strengthen their role as designers of meaningful learning experiences and stewards of ambitious, equitable practice in an increasingly AI-mediated world.

AI and Deeper Learning advances a research-based framework for responsible uses of AI in classrooms. Drawing on the work of John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, and other scholars in the sociocultural tradition, Brent Michael Duckor and Carrie Holmberg revisit foundational debates about learner development, the nature of learning, and the purposes of education. Arguing that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in teaching and learning, the authors offer new directions for addressing paradoxes of instruction with AI-focused practices.

By reading this book, you will learn:

• How to distinguish between interactive learning and interpassive learning
• How to use ethical, human-centered, and instructionally meaningful AI practice in schools
• How to confront AI hallucinations, the erosion of student voice, automated versus authentic feedback, and the outsourcing of productive struggle in the learning process 
   

The book’s practical design principles encourage educators to use their pedagogical judgment and make principled decisions about whether, when, or how AI belongs in the learning process. It provides guiding questions, reflective exercises, and resources that help K–12 teachers, professional learning communities, and teacher educators design instruction that cultivates deeper learning and ambitious teaching in AI-mediated classrooms.