Restrict: preserve AI-free cognitive sanctuaries where unassisted capability is practiced and assessed¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The first part of the article's four-part framework directs educational settings to preserve AI-free spaces so that baseline human capability remains observable. The authors argue that 'educational settings should preserve some AI-free spaces to ensure that baseline human capability can still be observed, practiced, and assessed', and endorse an inverted scaffolding approach that begins with highly restricted AI access and increases access only as learners demonstrate domain mastery and self-regulation.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Designated AI-free sessions in which unassisted reasoning can be practiced, observed, and assessed, following an inverted scaffolding sequence that loosens restrictions as learners demonstrate mastery and self-regulation.

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• medical students in clinical reasoning training
• novice learners

Target Learning Goals¶

• unassisted clinical reasoning
• demonstration and assessment of baseline capability

Related Strategies¶

• Realign: deploy Socratic withholding protocols that delay direct answers for conceptual or diagnostic queries
• Require: process-based assessment through metacognitive rationales for accepting or revising AI suggestions
• Provide AI-free proctored spaces so some take-home work is verifiably unassisted

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Wang H and Shan W (2026). The safety gap: restoring productive struggle through pedagogically aligned generative AI. Front. Educ. 11:1757622. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2026.1757622