Congratulations to Saule Kairollovna Damekova on her project's grant award!

Artificial intelligence is confidently entering all spheres of our lives.
It has already become an axiom that it is not AI that will replace people, but people who use AI will replace those who don’t.

Naturally, our future generations-our schoolchildren and students-can only be competitive if they master all the advantages that AI tools offer. But who will teach them this? Their social environment, family, and, of course, their teachers. And teachers themselves must learn how to use AI effectively both in life and in their professional teaching activities.

Thoughtless and unstructured use of AI can harm the intellectual development of both teachers and their students. It can reduce critical thinking and problem-solving skills and increase overdependence on AI. If AI constantly provides ready-made answers and solutions, people may lose the motivation and ability to develop their own critical thinking, analyze information, and find solutions independently. AI may also provide results without explaining the logic behind them, which hinders users from understanding how these results were generated and from developing their own analytical skills. Furthermore, AI can distort reality by generating biased, incomplete, or inaccurate information.

Excessive reliance on AI also weakens memory and learning abilities, atrophies cognitive functions, prevents deep understanding of subjects and sustainable knowledge formation, and decreases creativity and cognitive engagement. This, in turn, leads to social and emotional degradation, including reduced empathy and emotional intelligence.

To avoid these risks, a scientifically grounded and systematic approach to working with AI is necessary-an approach where AI is seen as a tool to enhance human potential, not to replace it.

Until now, there has been no research on how AI can be used to develop critical thinking in future teachers.

Researchers at Astana International University have received grant funding to address this issue.
The project titled "Development of Critical Thinking in Future Computer Science Teachers Based on AI Tools", led by Saule Kairollovna Damekova, PhD in Pedagogical Sciences and Associate Professor at the Pedagogical Institute of Astana International University, aims to develop and implement educational modules and AI-based simulators that foster critical thinking in future computer science teachers, as well as assess their effectiveness in the university’s educational process.

The project plans to create an innovative educational simulator with AI that not only develops critical thinking skills in future computer science teachers but also enhances their professional competencies, including methods for teaching critical thinking in schools.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from Columbia University (New York, USA), which will allow the integration of international experience and best practices into the methodological system for developing critical thinking in future teachers. On the international level, the project's results can be adapted and implemented in educational programs of other countries, creating opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The outcomes of the project have wide application potential:

• In education: the developed modules and AI simulator can be integrated into teacher education programs.
• In science: the results may serve as a basis for further research in educational technology, pedagogy, and artificial intelligence. Studies in this field could lead to new algorithms and methods that expand AI’s capabilities in education and help build more effective, accessible, and equitable educational systems.