Bibliometric Analysis on Artificial Intelligence and Critical Thinking Skills of Higher Education Students

Critical thinking is regarded as a key skill for students' success, and there has been an upsurge in recent studies relating critical thinking skills and Artificial Intelligence (AI).Therefore, the current bibliometric study aims to investigate the evolving research domain of artificial intelligence and the critical thinking skills of higher education students.In this study, a total of 193 publications, retrieved from the Web of Science database from 1997 to 2024, were analysed using performance, co-citation and co-word analysis methods to provide an overview of the most influential publications, the knowledge structure, and predicted future research trends of this field.The findings indicated a noticeable upward trend in publications and citations between 2020 and 2024.The results of co-citation analysis revealed four clusters, indicating existing research has focused heavily on exploring the themes related to the role of generative AI in fostering critical thinking, the relationship between critical thinking and academic integrity, student-centred innovations, and challenges in promoting critical thinking.Whereas co-word analysis identified five clusters.These clusters highlighted the need to conduct interdisciplinary studies on creating effective and ethical AI-mediated learning environments with innovative pedagogical and assessment strategies to foster critical thinking among higher education students.Consequently, this study offers valuable theoretical and practical insights for educators, researchers, policymakers, academics, and higher education students to align AI technologies with educational objectives that foster critical thinking.