As we navigate rapidly changing systems, growing complexity, and information-rich environments in which many routine cognitive tasks are increasingly delegated to AI systems, the central challenge is not simply acquiring information but learning how to evaluate evidence, exercise judgment, understand multiple perspectives, and transfer knowledge across contexts.
This is where a liberal arts education complements disciplinary expertise, says the Director of NYU Abu Dhabi Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning, Evgeniya Efremova. It provides students with multiple ways of understanding reality, framing questions, evaluating claims, and engaging with problems that do not fit neatly within a single field or discipline.
“These capacities are critical not only for professional life but also for meaningful participation in an increasingly complex and AI-infused society,” says Efremova
Bridging the AI divide
The Center partners with faculty and academic staff across NYUAD to advance inclusive, innovative, and evidence-informed teaching while navigating the impact of generative AI on learning and classroom practice.
“We have been working closely with both students and faculty to better understand how generative AI is actually being used in teaching and learning contexts - why students turn to these tools, how faculty are integrating or responding to AI in the classroom, and how different forms of AI use may be shaping thinking, learning, and foundational skill development,” says Efremova.
“Through recent student and faculty surveys, focused interviews, and classroom conversations, we are trying to better understand the evolving challenges and opportunities so that universities can respond thoughtfully rather than reactively,” says Efremova.
Learning from best practices
Efremova believes generative AI can be meaningfully integrated into education, but only through pedagogical approaches grounded in learning science, careful assessment of learning outcomes, and ongoing attention to whether students are offloading foundational cognitive work to AI systems.
I see the value of integrating AI into certain aspects of education; however, the real question is not simply whether we use it, but how we design learning experiences that continue to cultivate foundational cognitive, communicative, analytical, and independent thinking skills.
Her aim is to cultivate classrooms that are increasingly experiential, intellectually engaging, and grounded in active participation, where students are encouraged to grapple with ambiguity, confront difficult questions, and move beyond passive consumption of information.
Efremova emphasizes that meaningful learning often requires discomfort, uncertainty, and sustained effort — experiences that cannot simply be outsourced to technology without consequences for students’ long-term intellectual development. Faculty plays a critical role in this environment not only in inspiring students intellectually, but also in designing learning environments that cultivate curiosity, resilience, ethical reflection, and deep engagement.
“It is crucial to highlight the value of liberal arts education in the age of AI,” she says, “because its purpose is not simply to transfer information, but to help students develop the judgment, communication, interdisciplinary understanding, and human capacities needed to engage thoughtfully with a rapidly changing world and become agents of change within it.”
Teaching and learning as science
A central part of Efremova’s philosophy is the idea that teaching and learning should be approached as evidence-informed practice grounded in cognitive science and research on how students develop intellectually.
The rapid expansion of AI in education raises important ethical and pedagogical questions, particularly when technologies begin to replace forms of productive struggle, reflection, persistence, and independent thinking that are essential to long-term learning and foundational skill development.
Rather than treating educational innovation as a purely technological challenge, Efremova emphasizes the importance of experiential learning, reflective teaching communities, interdisciplinary collaboration, and student-faculty partnerships that allow institutions to collectively rethink teaching and learning in a rapidly changing world.
