{"id":11733,"date":"2024-09-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/ciel\/?p=11733"},"modified":"2024-11-07T16:11:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T00:11:35","slug":"practical-prompting-for-teaching-and-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/ciel\/2024\/09\/26\/practical-prompting-for-teaching-and-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Prompting for\u00a0Teaching\u00a0and\u00a0Learning\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), specifically in large language models (LLMs), are adding a new way learners may access information. Unlike traditional search engines that link to websites, LLMs directly answer user questions using a vast amount of information (Stadler et al., 2024<\/a>). An LLM uses machine learning to process large datasets, enabling it to understand context and generate human-like text by predicting the next word in a sequence, as well as handling other data representations such as music and images. As educators, we can guide learners in identifying their areas of inquiry and help them formulate the right questions, ultimately aiming to enhance their learning and foster critical thinking. As one particular study showed, learning to prompt effectively can even help students realize more about the limits of AI, which inevitably fosters their AI literacy (Theophilou et al.,\u202f2023<\/a>).\u202fThis blog offers different strategies and recommended practices for prompting when interacting with AI tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaches to Prompting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prompt engineering involves carefully designing inputs to get specific responses or behaviors from AI systems. The prompt approach will influence responses, and prompt engineering is an iterative refinement process. There are several established prompting methods, as summarized in the table below (from Embracing the future of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom: the relevance of AI literacy, prompt engineering, and critical thinking in modern education<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kaden (2024<\/a>) shared three relevant prompting approaches for educators; structured approach, rhetorical approach, and the C.R.E.A.T.E framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structured Approach <\/strong>(Cummings)<\/a> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Essentially there are three parts of a structured prompt, typically in the following order; task, context, and content.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n