Generative Artificial Intelligence in Secondary Education: Implications for Academic Integrity and Critical Thinking

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot have rapidly entered secondary school classrooms, offering adolescents unprecedented access to on-demand writing assistance, tutoring, and content creation. This systematic literature review (SLR) follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to examine how GenAI, specifically, shapes academic integrity and critical thinking among secondary-level learners. Sixteen peer-reviewed sources published between 2016 and 2026 were analyzed from Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, and IEEE. The evidence indicates that GenAI chatbots, automated writing assistants, and adaptive tutoring platforms are increasingly used by adolescents for drafting, brainstorming, and homework support. GenAI supports motivation, engagement, and confidence through instant feedback, personalization, and accessible explanations. However, the ease with which GenAI produces polished, human-like text raises distinct integrity concerns, including undetectable ghostwriting, ambiguous authorship, and diminished ownership of student work, that differ in scale and speed from earlier forms of academic dishonesty. Over-reliance on GenAI for reasoning tasks may also contribute to cognitive offloading, weakening the sustained analysis, evaluation, and argumentation that constitute critical thinking. This review identifies gaps in longitudinal, cross-cultural, and secondary-specific empirical evidence and calls for GenAI literacy programs, redesigned assessments, and clear institutional policy to help secondary schools harness GenAI's benefits while protecting authentic intellectual growth.