Generative prompting: using AI as a thinking partner through iterative dialogue rather than an answer machine¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Generative prompting is a Contextual Use capacity in which learners employ iterative dialogue with AI to develop and refine their own knowledge rather than outsource it. The paper defines it as "using AI not as an answer machine but as a thinking partner, employing iterative dialogue to develop and refine one's own knowledge rather than to outsource it." It requires understanding AI as a tool with particular capabilities and limitations, a resource for producing one's own knowledge rather than a substitute for it.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Learners must hold a reflective understanding of their own epistemic goals and the social contexts in which knowledge matters

Constraints¶

• The paper situates this within its theoretical framework; it is not an empirically evaluated instructional technique

Target Learners¶

• Students using AI for research and knowledge production tasks

Target Learning Goals¶

• Epistemic self-determination: developing and refining one's own knowledge through AI-supported dialogue

Affordances¶

• Three Part Ai Literacy Epistemic Agency Framework

Related Strategies¶

• Counter-prompting: deliberately probing AI systems for their assumptions and using responses as data about the apparatus
• Students should treat GenAI as a critical dialogue partner, using informed, iterative prompting rather than collecting ready-made answers

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Brady D. Lund and Zoë Abbie Teel. (2026). AI Literacy: An Exercise in Power-Knowledge. University of North Texas. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.27547