Abstract
This study examines how undergraduate students with different levels of epistemic beliefs perceive and interact with ChatGPT, a popular AI language model. Epistemic beliefs reflect an individual’s understanding of knowledge—its nature, construction, and origins—and significantly influence how students evaluate and interpret information. Students with underdeveloped epistemic beliefs often perceive knowledge as fixed, certain, and stemming from authoritative sources, making them less likely to question or critically assess information. With ChatGPT’s growing popularity among students, the study investigates how these beliefs shape students’ trust in and evaluation of AI-generated content. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining surveys and interviews with undergraduate students from various disciplines. The surveys assessed participants’ epistemic beliefs, while structured questions explored their perceptions and interactions with ChatGPT. Follow-up interviews provided deeper insights into their thought processes and experiences with the tool. The findings reveal a divide: students with underdeveloped epistemic beliefs tend to trust ChatGPT as an authoritative source, accepting its responses uncritically and overlooking potential limitations such as biases and inaccuracies. Conversely, students with more advanced epistemic beliefs demonstrated skepticism, cross-referencing ChatGPT’s responses with other sources and understanding the model as a probabilistic knowledge generator rather than a definitive one. These results highlight the urgent need for educators to foster critical thinking and analytical skills in students, especially as AI tools like ChatGPT become integral to learning. Emphasizing epistemic awareness and digital literacy in curricula can equip students to engage critically with AI-generated content, promoting more informed and reflective academic practices.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Epistemic beliefs,ChatGPT, Critical thinking, AI in education, Digital literacy
