Artificial Intelligence As A Learning Partner: Rethinking The Roles Of Teachers, Learners, And Knowledge Construction In Contemporary Education

Abstract

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has transformed how teachers and students access, process, and construct knowledge in contemporary education. The increasing capacity of AI systems to provide information, generate ideas, support dialogue, and offer feedback raises fundamental questions about the changing roles of teachers and students and the position of AI within the learning process. This study aims to analyze the conceptualization of AI as a learning partner and examine its implications for teacher roles, student agency, and knowledge construction. This qualitative study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with thematic-conceptual synthesis. Relevant literature was identified through Google Scholar, supported by Consensus as a supplementary literature discovery and verification tool. The reviewed literature was analyzed through thematic coding, categorization, comparison, and conceptual synthesis. The findings indicate two major patterns. First, the involvement of AI shifts the role of teachers from primary transmitters of information toward pedagogical guides, knowledge curators, dialogue facilitators, and validators of information and educational values, while students are increasingly positioned as active agents who question, evaluate, interpret, and reflect on AI-generated information. Second, knowledge construction becomes more relational, involving the interaction of teachers, students, and AI through processes of generation, verification, interpretation, negotiation, and reflection. AI therefore functions as a cognitive learning partner rather than a final epistemic authority. The study contributes a conceptual framework that integrates the teacher as a pedagogical agent, the student as an epistemic agent, and AI as a cognitive partner while maintaining human agency at the center of education.