Reclaiming the Inventor’s Mind in the Age of AI: A Pedagogical Shift from Consuming Recipes to Cultivating Personal Reflection in Physics Education

Physics education traditionally presents the discipline as a collection of established recipes, omitting the personal, a priori reflection central to the historical development of theories. The rise of Generative AI has exposed the fragility of this recipe-based model, as AI can now execute algorithmic problem-solving effortlessly. This theoretical paper argues that this technological disruption is a catalyst for a fundamental reorientation: the physics classroom must be reconceived as a space for structured thinking, where theories are presented as subjective, creative resolutions to problems, a direct reflection of an inventor's mind. We synthesize historical and philosophical analyses with contemporary physics education research (PER) on student epistemologies, conceptual change, and metacognition to propose a pedagogical framework centered on three pillars: acknowledging subjectivity in theory-building, recognizing multiple equivalent formulations, and leveraging historical narrative. We further introduce AI-assisted classroom strategies designed to implement this shift, positioning AI as a Socratic partner and historical simulator. The paper concludes with a set of testable propositions to guide future empirical research. This work contributes a novel theoretical synthesis that integrates AI into a historically-grounded, reflective pedagogy, aiming to cultivate the \textit{inventor's mind} and prepare students not merely as consumers of knowledge but as creators of future possibilities.