La scuola nel XXI secolo. Promuovere il pensiero critico nella società dell’IA

Today’s society is characterised by rapid and profound transformations, most no-tably the digital revolution, within which the current widespread dissemination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is situated. These developments entail significant anthro-pological shifts, insofar as they radically reshape various dimensions of individual and social life. From this perspective, pedagogy and, in particular, the school are cal-led upon to reconsider their role and significance in light of the far-reaching changes affecting personal lifestyles, modes of relationship, individual decision-making, as well as forms of collective, professional, and civic engagement.In this context, the school is urged to respond to the emerging challenges of the pre-sent age, lest it risk social irrelevance. Nonetheless, it must do so while remaining faithful to its pedagogical mission, resisting uncritical adherence to contemporary ideologies that risk relegating it to a subordinate position. Within this framework, the present contribution identified the paradigm of human development in a demo-cratic direction as a guiding context for conceptualising education in relation to di-gital technologies and Artificial Intelligence. From this point of view, education in critical thinking is interpreted as a fundamental pedagogical objective for schooling that aims to educate individuals to live meaningfully in the present era.