“Beyond Boundaries” T&L Lecture Series 9 | Self-Authorship, Human Development, and Higher Education in the Age of AI
The "Beyond Boundaries" T&L Lecture Series, organized by the Centre for Teaching and Learning, is guided by its core philosophy: "Longitudinal historical perspective, Interdisciplinary integration, Dedicated educational craftsmanship, and Future-oriented vision." Through intellectual collisions across disciplines, the series aims to broaden perspectives and inspire profound thinking.
Date & Time: 03:00 pm - 4:30 pm, 7 January 2026 (Wed)
Speaker: Dr. Shanker DUTT BHATT (Managing Director at MaxED [Maximum Value Education], Research on adolescent development of self-authorship)
Venue: CC126
Language: English
Abstract:
AI has intensified long-standing questions in higher education about thinking, self-authorship, and responsibility. While current debates often focus on skills, tools, or academic integrity, this talk approaches AI as a developmental stress test - one that exposes deeper assumptions about how learners form judgment, identity, and voice. Drawing on research on self-authorship, understood as the capacity for meaning-making, internal values, and decision-making, the seminar highlights evidence that many adults only rarely internalise epistemic or moral authority. Challenges often attributed to AI, therefore, reflect not a technological rupture alone but an existing developmental gap. Students may learn to perform successfully without fully authoring what they know or why they hold particular positions. AI does not create this condition; it tends to amplify it. The talk invites faculty and students across disciplines to reconsider what human-centred education entails and why educating for integrated adulthood remains central to the mission of higher education.
Light refreshment will be provided.
