Preprint
Slowing Down to Learn: GenAI as a Tool for Clinical Reasoning, Reflection, and Ethical GenAI use in Psychology and Social Work Education
SSRN, Vol.Series Paper No. 56
Southern Cross University Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Research Paper Series, Elsevier
08/06/2026
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Abstract
This paper reports on the design and piloting of a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) assisted simulation learning activity. The activity provided to psychology and social work students at Southern Cross University was a deliberately simple task inviting students to interact with a GenAI persona, to slow down, think carefully, and reflect on their own decision making during the encounter. Students were provided with structured GenAI chatbot persona prompts designed to simulate client-based interactions, as well as deliver structured feedback across four micro-counselling skill domains (empathy, active listening, question quality, cultural and ethical sensitivity). The learning activity's merit lies in the architecture of intentionality. Students were required to pause, reflect, select, and justify each clinical response. Student feedback was positive with strong engagement, skill reinforcement, enhanced feedback literacy, and the emergence of deliberate clinical reasoning under low-stakes conditions. The facilitated learning activity was informed by an emerging pedagogical framework of moment-to moment clinical decision making currently under review (Thomson-Casey & Temler, under review), making the moment-to-moment architecture of clinical decision-making explicit and practical. This paper describes a GenAI persona interaction as a potential scalable, curriculum-ready teaching approach to developing deliberate practice, critical reflection, and ethical GenAI awareness. The report provides original insights into how student voices and instructor feedback could be used to help design GenAI integrated learning for students in allied health professions.
Details
- Title
- Slowing Down to Learn: GenAI as a Tool for Clinical Reasoning, Reflection, and Ethical GenAI use in Psychology and Social Work Education
- Creators
- Carrie Thomson-Casey - Southern Cross UniversityAim Sinpeng - Southern Cross UniversityZach Quince - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- SSRN, Vol.Series Paper No. 56
- Series
- Southern Cross University Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Research Paper Series
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Identifiers
- 991013382151702368
- Academic Unit
- Centre for Teaching and Learning; Human Sciences; Faculty of Science and Engineering; National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine; Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Preprint
- Local Fields
- Original Research - SoLT