Agentivism: a learning theory for the age of artificial intelligence
Learning theories have historically changed when the conditions of learning evolved. Generative and agentic AI create a new condition by allowing learners to delegate explanation, writing, problem solving, and other cognitive work to systems that can generate, recommend, and sometimes act on the learner's behalf. This creates a fundamental challenge for learning theory: successful performance can no longer be assumed to indicate learning. Learners may complete tasks effectively with AI support while developing less understanding, weaker judgment, and limited transferable capability. We argue that this problem is not fully captured by existing learning theories. Behaviourism, cognitivism, ...
| Authors | Lixiang Yan, Dragan Gašević |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 9 April 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 21 May 2026 |
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