Digital Self-Regulation and Critical Thinking: The Imperceptible Attrition of Deliberative Rationality in the 5.0 Era
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Abstract
Background and Purpose: Higher education is progressively shifting toward a human-centred Education 5.0 paradigm. This shift raises critical questions about students' digital self-regulation with artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Understanding how such self-regulation influences critical-thinking habits is essential. This study draws on Self-Regulated Learning theory and the 21st-century skills framework. It examines associations between dimensions of digital self-regulation and discrete critical-thinking dispositions. The participants were 42 pre-service teachers from a central university in Delhi, India.
Methods: Two validated instruments were administered to all participants. The first was an 18-item scale capturing six facets of AI-mediated digital self-regulation. These facets included goal planning, prompt and tool strategies, and AI output quality monitoring. The second was an 18-item scale measuring six critical-thinking dispositions. Facet-level analyses explored specific links between individual self-regulation dimensions and thinking dispositions. Comparisons were also conducted among low, medium, and high AI-usage groups.
Results: No meaningful link emerged between overall self-regulation scores and general critical-thinking profiles. However, facet-level inspection revealed important nuances across dimensions. Learners who refined prompts and chose appropriate AI platforms displayed higher inquisitiveness. Those who verified AI answers against external sources demonstrated more systematic reasoning. Highly prescriptive goal planning appeared to dampen curiosity, though this trend lacked statistical decisiveness. Comparisons among AI-usage groups produced no significant differences in critical-thinking dispositions.
Conclusion: These findings highlight prompt refinement and output verification as key instructional leverage points. Teacher-education programmes can use these strategies to foster curiosity and organised analysis. Integrating targeted digital self-regulation practices may strengthen critical thinking in AI-rich learning environments.