Beyond the Algorithm: A Qualitative Inquiry into How College Students Navigate Artificial Intelligence Tools

Authors

Melanie T. Lucino

Abstract

This qualitative narrative inquiry explored how undergraduate teacher education students at Sacred Heart College of Calamba, Incorporated, navigated artificial intelligence (AI) tools in academic and inquiry-based tasks during School Year 2025–2026. The study examined students’ lived experiences, academic challenges, and coping mechanisms through semistructured interviews and narrative thematic analysis. The thesis identifies fifteen purposively selected students with experience using AI for coursework and exposure to Technology for Teaching and Learning 1 and 2. Findings revealed that students routinely used AI to support writing, research, brainstorming, comprehension, and task completion. While these tools offered convenience, feedback, and improved productivity, students also encountered inaccurate responses, unreliable references, difficult explanations, cognitive dependency, diminished confidence in independent work, and uncertainty about academic integrity. Participants reported fact-checking, rewriting AI outputs, contributing personal ideas, limiting AI assistance, monitoring their dependence, and observing institutional expectations. The findings portray AI as a potentially useful learning scaffold whose benefits depend on students’ critical engagement and ethical judgment. Clear institutional guidance, AI literacy, and assessments that sustain independent thinking are recommended.

Keywords

artificial intelligence; academic integrity; AI literacy; college students; narrative inquiry; cognitive dependency.