Thinking with AI: A Four Step Process

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Description

The process of working with AI may be new to you. Below is a suggested workflow for using generative AI in a way that maximizes its value for you as an expert who has specialized expertise in your field and your specific context.

1. Identify Your Purpose

Narrow the scope when possible. Broad prompts like “Help me teach critical thinking” tend to produce vague results. Try: “Help me design an in-class activity to teach students to distinguish correlation from causation.”

Use verbs. Frame your goal as an action (e.g., analyze, compare, rewrite, generate) to guide the AI more clearly.

2. Gather Relevant Materials

Curate, don’t just collect. The more focused and relevant the input, the better the AI’s output. What is the most relevant content to upload or link to as background knowledge? Trim to only what’s necessary.

Provide context. Add a short note like: “This is for a 200-level history course for students at an R1 university who struggle with primary sources.”

Chunk content. For long documents, consider uploading or pasting in parts. Ask the AI to work section by section if the platform allows.

Be aware of what file types and sizes your AI tool can process. Some tools can handle PDFs or Word docs, but others may not.

3. Start Interacting

Prompt iteratively. Even experienced users rarely get perfect responses on the first try. Plan to revise prompts as you go.

Interact conversationally. Instead of rewriting an entire prompt, try saying: “That’s too general—please focus more on student misconceptions.”

Use role-based prompts. Asking the AI to take on a role (e.g., “Act as a curriculum designer” or “Give feedback like a writing tutor”) often yields more targeted responses.

Fact-check. If the AI references content or examples, double-check accuracy—especially for citations, legal issues, or discipline-specific content.

Remember that you can always guide the format, depth, or focus of the AI’s replies.

4. Test and Refine

Reflect on what you are learning. Use the process not just to get output, but to sharpen your own sense of quality, clarity, and possibilities.

Save and document good prompts. Save the prompts that worked well for you, creating a personal “prompt bank” for future use. Capture what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised you.

Reflect and revise. After using the output, ask yourself: “Did this save time? Improve engagement? Clarify complexity? What could I do differently next time?” Use that to shape your subsequent interactions.

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