Individual vs peer support in the AI era: Investigating students’ cognitive dispositions in design education

The newly introduced higher education curriculum focuses on skill-oriented instruction, encouraging students to engage in design-driven tasks. Despite the potential of the curriculum, its implementation faces challenges, particularly in integrating cost-effective pedagogical approaches to foster cognitive dispositions such as metacognition, creativity, and design thinking. This study investigates the effectiveness of peer and individual support mechanisms, alongside emerging AI technologies, in addressing these challenges. Specifically, it examines how these supports enhance students’ cognitive dispositions within the context of design education. The study adopts a quasi-experimental research design involving 142 undergraduate students enrolled in design-related courses. Participants are divided into groups receiving peer support, individual support, or a combination of these, with or without AI assistance. Data collection includes reflective journals, creative design tasks, and design artefacts, which are analysed using epistemic network analysis and MANOVA. Results show that peer support significantly enhances collaborative metacognitive strategies, creativity, and design thinking compared to individual support. The integration of AI provides additional support, with more potent effects in peer support groups. However, AI does not improve students' design thinking in either peer or individual support mechanisms. The findings demonstrate the potential of combining traditional support mechanisms with AI to enhance cognitive dispositions in design education and offer a scalable solution for addressing curriculum implementation challenges while equipping students with critical 21st-century skills.