GenAI in education: Chinese study reveals critical AI literacy gap

A design-based study of 78 ethnic minority preparatory students in China found that a three-week GenAI course with pedagogical scaffolding—including a human-in-the-loop workflow and teacher modeling with contrasting cases—shifted students from passive consumption to critical co-creation. Collaborative discourse analysis revealed students initially used strategy talk to coordinate efficient copying, then realigned it toward critical evaluation and peer co-construction. Teacher scaffolding helped students overcome authority bias and prompt paralysis, and their prompt self-efficacy significantly increased. The authors argue technical training alone is insufficient; educators need targeted human-AI collaboration interventions to cultivate epistemic agency.