Critical Thinking in Education: Assessment Must Reward Judgment

In the UK, 94 percent of undergraduate students now say they use generative AI for assessed assignments. The figure comes from a 2026 survey of 1,054 full-time students. Education cannot be based on the assumption that homework delivered is a pure sample of individual thinking. Nor is it enough to ask students to use technology responsibly. When the system primarily grades the final text, a strong incentive is created to assign to a tool as much of the work as possible. Critical thinking in education needs a different approach. The path to an answer must be made visible, checked and graded. The value of work must lie in interpreting, questioning, verifying and defending a judgment. That is where AI ceases to function as an easy replacement and begins to become a learning tool.