Scaffolding Critical Engagement with GenAI: Transforming Ethnic Minority Preparatory Students' Collaborative Discourse in Prompt Engineering Tasks

Deliang Wang, Cunling Bian — AIED 2026 (accepted full paper).

Deliang Wang, Cunling Bian — AIED 2026 (accepted full paper).

Synthesis

A three-week GenAI course for 78 ethnic minority preparatory students in China integrated a human-in-the-loop workflow and teacher modeling with contrasting cases to move students from passive consumption to critical co-creation with GenAI.

Using epistemic network analysis of collaborative discourse, thematic analysis of reflections, and paired-samples t-tests on prompt self-efficacy, the study documents 'strategic repurposing': students initially instrumentalized strategy talk to coordinate efficient copying before shifting toward genuine critical engagement.

The design specifically targets the cognitive-laziness risk of GenAI in equity contexts — where broader access could otherwise become an answer-engine shortcut — by scaffolding prompt engineering as a thinking practice.

Results indicate pedagogical scaffolding can transform how minoritized students engage GenAI, with implications for prompt self-efficacy and collaborative discourse quality; findings support scaffolded rather than open-ended GenAI use for equity populations.

Connected Concepts

Automated Essay Scoring

Student Experience

Equity In AI Education

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Citation

Wang, D., & Bian, C. (2026). Scaffolding critical engagement with GenAI: Transforming ethnic minority preparatory students' collaborative discourse in prompt engineering tasks. AIED 2026. arXiv:2607.28630.