AI Critical Thinking Leveraging in Academic Research: Insights from EFL MA Students at the Faculty of Arts and Languages, University of Tripoli, Libya

الملخص

This study explores how AI tools boost postgraduates’ cognitive competency in critical thinking in academic research. The study adopts a qualitative survey, based on Haase’s (2010) cognitive processes of critical thinking. It involves 16 Libyan EFL MA female students at the Faculty of Arts and Languages, University of Tripoli, Libya. Students’ responses are analyzed thematically, employing the analysis framework of Clarke and Braun (2017). Findings signify that AI tools help students utilize critical thinking processes, enabling them to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate AI-driven content in executing their academic research. The findings also demonstrate that students are conscious that overdependency on AI tools can cause offloading, adverse ethical consequences, and academic dishonesty. Accordingly, this study calls for students to balance the use of AI tools with traditional academic writing conventions. Finally, the study advises supervisors to constantly remind their students to apply AI tools responsibly, and to promote their academic AI-information literacy regularly, so as to produce high-caliber academic research