From Punch Cards to Prompt Engines: The Shared History of Artificial Intelligence and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Generative AI, in form of Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, has created a significant disruption in educational environments; however, the development of artificial intelligence and education as a field has a rich and storied history. This paper articulates the development of artificial intelligence in education with respect to several periods of development, as well as the two major modes of thought within, cognitivism and constructionism. The paper argues that these two modes of thought defined the landscape of artificial intelligence and that not only has education been a significant point of research in this field, but that learning was inextricably linked to the study of artificial intelligence: the early artificial intelligence researchers, such as Marvin Minsky, Seymour Papert, Herbert Simon, and Allen Newell, developed theories of thought and cognition and built these theories into applications of artificial intelligence and computing; these theories, with particular reference to the work of Minsky and Papert, would directly lead to the development of the learning sciences as a field of research. The paper also provides descriptions of several periods of bust-and-boom within the study of artificial intelligence, a brief review of the status of artificial intelligence in education as a field today, and an analysis of the use of artificial intelligence as a representation of human thought patterns in contemporary research.