Extended learning and agent-based artificial intelligence in networked educational ecosystems: a qualitative and quantitative study in lower secondary schools
Parole chiave:
artificial intelligence, extended mind, teaching practices, secondary schoolAbstract
The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the role of agentic artificial intelligence in extended learning processes within networked educational ecosystems. Building on Gregory Bateson’s perspectives of the extended mind and the ecology of the mind, the study investigates how AI tools can influence cognitive agency, decision-making processes and learning dynamics in a sample of students attending lower secondary school in the municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in the province of Caserta. The study was conducted using a mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) approach, employing tools validated by the international literature to measure both cognitive and metacognitive variables and subjective representations of learning. The results highlight a significant transformation of distributed cognitive processes and raise important questions for educational governance in human–artificial hybrid environments.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Giovanna Scala, Fabiola Palmiero, Domenico Tafuri

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