Augmented Teaching: How to Integrate Artificial Intelligence Without Losing Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Abstract

This article presents the results of a collaborative research developed between teachers from the Popular University of Cesar (UPC) and primary and secondary school teachers. The main objective was to understand and propose an augmented teaching model that allows the integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom without weakening critical thinking, intellectual autonomy, and Caribbean cultural identity. Based on a qualitative approach with a participatory action research design (Fals Borda, 2008), we worked with 24 teachers (12 university and 12 elementary school) and 180 students during the first semester of 2025. The results show three main findings: (a) AI is perceived as an opportunity to free up teaching time for deep mediation, but generates fear of cognitive dependence; (b) critical prompt strategies, co-evaluation with AI, and contrast with local vallenato knowledge enhance critical thinking instead of annulling it; (c) the CPA (Understand-Prompt-Criticize-Amplify) model is proposed for the context of the UPC. It is concluded that it is not a question of prohibiting or idolizing AI, but of training augmented teachers, not replacements.