05/12/2025

Establishing Reflective Learning Practices to Minimise Student AI Dependence

By Miriam Salim

Image credit: Thirdman. (2021). Woman Typing on Laptop [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-typing-on-laptop-7181179/

Encouraging Writing Ownership and Pride

The release of ChatGPT and other subsequent text-generative AIs has greatly influenced academic integrity and student learning. As a Canadian college writing professor interested in establishing welcoming learning spaces, I focus more on centring and amplifying student voices in the classroom rather than on punishing AI use. Text-generative AI responds to prompts in a formulaic manner, showcasing white, male, and liberal writing which is not representative of many students’ authentic voice. Assisting students in finding their own writing style and developing a sense of self promotes student agency (Thaiss & Zawacki, 2006) and is the main aim of reflective writing practices.

Considering our current academic landscape, I’ve incorporated a variety of reflective skill building exercises in my classes to encourage authentic writing and critical thinking. Once students can see the value of their own thoughts and writing abilities, academic integrity will be the natural consequence. The intention of these reflective exercises is to highlight the significance of authenticity in student work, and to stress the value of adding one’s voice to ongoing conversations in one’s discipline.

Listed below are 7 exercises that can be modified and implemented in classrooms across various disciplines to encourage original writing.

1. Freewriting/journaling

Incorporating focused freewriting in the classroom permits the instructor to view the student’s authentic voice and build rapport. All that is needed is a really good writing prompt to encourage students to think critically and write out their thoughts.

Set aside 15 or so minutes at a natural breaktime in the class – typically between two activities – and provide a short prompt to which the students should respond. For example, following a lesson on presentation skills, I may ask:

1. Please answer the following questions in no more than 200 words:
   1. What is your greatest concern regarding your upcoming presentation? Why?
   2. What steps will you take to overcome this concern?

Keeping to a brief timeline and asking students to handwrite the response reduces student dependence on text-generative AI and provides the instructor with the student’s original writing style. Having this authentic writing sample supports the teacher in knowing how the student formulates ideas and their writing style, and it sharpens quick thinking and organizational skills for the student.

Another option for focused freewriting is the maintenance of a course journal. Prompts can be provided, and the student can keep a short journal as the semester progresses. Providing responses to the student on a weekly basis further establishes rapport with the student and highlights the value of their opinions on important topics within the discipline. In these quick-writing exercises, students should be permitted to code-mesh (blending languages and/or dialects) to be truly authentic and to maintain pride and ownership of their writing (Canagarajah, 2023).

2. Introductory survey

Incorporating an introductory survey to request information about the students’ preferences shows students that you value their opinions and that you are willing to cocreate the curriculum with them. Using their suggestions to create materials for the course will show relevance and representation for the students (McNeal & Elbow, 2017). Increasing student interest in the topics will result in honest interaction with the material.

3. Remedial workshops

Throughout the course, stress the importance of academic integrity and how using text-generative AI is not in the student’s best interests. Halfway through the semester, run a remedial workshop to reinforce academic integrity concepts.

Below is the “Contents” slide from my remedial workshop:

4. Comparisons

Highlight the relevance of critical thinking by comparing authentic student work against a text-generative AI response to a task prompt. Having students investigate the failures and successes of their work leads to reflection and thus growth (Thaiss & Zawacki, 2006; Inoue, 2020). Furthermore, examining their work alongside the AI’s will highlight both the value and distinctiveness of the student’s writing.

5. Presentations

If possible, consider incorporating presentations into the course. For reflective purposes, leaving time at the end of the presentation for questions from classmates serves two purposes:

1. The presenter can indicate actual knowledge of their topic as responding to questions requires a real understanding of the material
2. The questioner can exhibit critical thinking by engaging with the material presented

6. Portfolios

Portfolios either contain multiple drafts of the same assignment or a scaffolded assignment which contains disparate parts collated into one final task. Providing consistent feedback is integral to student growth in the writing process (Inoue, 2020). Portfolios permit students to view growth in their complexity of thought and writing patterns; and they encourage original writing as students must build on previous work as the portfolio grows. Feedback can come from peers in addition to instructors as studies have shown that deliberating and conceptualizing one’s work with a peer increases writing confidence (Thaiss & Zawacki, 2006).

7. Major reflection

Finally, include a reflection task once the major assignment is complete. Through this task, students can reflect and find themselves in their work, thus transforming their learning experience into knowledge of their discipline (McAlpine & Weston, 2000, p. 364).

Here are some questions from my final reflection task:

1. What aspect of this task are you particularly proud of and why?
2. What was the most challenging aspect of completing this task and how did you overcome it?

• What is the significance of your research?

1. Which part of your submission requires more attention? Why?
2. How has your writing changed as the portfolio has progressed?

Reinforcing the Value of Student Voice

Our task as educators is to determine how assignments that encourage critical, original thought can be designed and how students can be encouraged to write despite easy access to text-generative AI and its capabilities. My solution is to reinforce the importance of authentic student voice via reflective writing practices. These practices will help establish a welcoming learning space where student confidence – and thus authenticity and integrity – can flourish.

References

Canagarajah, S. (2023). Decolonizing AW Pedagogies for Multilingual Students. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3231

Inoue, A. B. (2020). “Grading Writing is a Racist Practice.” Statement: A Magazine of the Colorado Language Arts Society, (53)1, 1-13.

McNeal, R., & Elbow, P. (2017). Decolonizing the Classroom: An Essay in Two Parts. Writing on the Edge, 28(1), 19–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44647497 of a systemic approach. https://www.leru.org/files/LERU-EDI-paper_final.pdf

McAlpine, L., & Weston, C. (2000). Reflection: Issues related to improving professors’ teaching and students’ learning. Instructional Science, 28(5/6), 363–385. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23371455

Thaiss, C.J., & Zawacki, T.M. (2006). Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life. Boynton/Cook.

Miriam Salim is a reading and writing professor at Humber Polytechnic, Toronto, Canada. She is passionate about establishing welcoming and brave learning spaces, enjoys developing practical solutions to writing challenges and is always excited about supporting students on their authentic writing journeys.

The author's views are their own.

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