AI in Education

Socratic AI tutors

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a transformative force in supporting Challenge-Based Learning by providing personalized, adaptive learning experiences. AI-powered Socratic tutors have shown significant promise in fostering critical thinking through questioning rather than direct instruction. Fakour et al. (2025) conducted a comparative study of ChatGPT and human tutors in enhancing critical thinking skills, finding that while students appreciated AI's non-judgmental nature and accessibility, human tutors excelled in providing tailored feedback and emotional support. Recent research demonstrates that AI Socratic tutors can facilitate deeper engagement with complex problems, an essential component of CBL pedagogy. A randomized controlled trial involving UK classrooms found that students receiving support from pedagogically fine-tuned AI were 5.5 percentage points more likely to solve novel problems compared to those receiving only human tutoring (LearnLM team Google report, 2025).

At the moment, a number of teachers at TU/e are testing Socratic AI tutors platforms, such as Alexandria, EduGenAI and OpenWei, and even a self-built agents. For programmign education, Dodona is an AI co-teacher, being tested at TU/e ME department at the moment. Would you like to learn more and try AI tutors in your teaching? Get in touch with a.zinovyeva@tue.nl  

Learn more about AI in Education use on our Canvas OLE pages: Artificial intelligence in Education: Online Learning & Education

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• Fakour, H., & Imani, M. (2025). Socratic wisdom in the age of AI: a comparative study of ChatGPT and human tutors in enhancing critical thinking skills. Frontiers in Education, 10, Article 1528603. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1528603
• LearnLM Team, Google Eedi (2025). AI tutoring can safely and effectively support students: An exploratory RCT in UK classrooms. arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.23633. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23633
• Van Petegem, C., Strijbol, N., Dawyndt, P., & Mesuere, B. (2023). Dodona: Learn to code with a virtual co-teacher that supports active learning. SoftwareX, 24, 101568. 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2023.101568