Interdisciplinary Approach to ELT in Higher Education in AI Era: Developing Metacognition Through Creative Practice

Abstract

With the unfolding of events such as pandemic, wars and invention of the AI, it becomes crucial to fix the focus of
the academic goals of the teaching and learning process in order to make the educational process as fruitful and relevant as
possible. The point of departure (POD) for this study lies in the apparent necessity to transform pedagogical practices in higher
education providing a comparatively balanced approach for the development of the hard and soft skills focusing on metacogni
tion. While prior multiple researches have already examined Augmented Reality and its impact on motivation and the devel
opment of hard and soft skills, less attention has been given to how development of metacognition through creative practices
such as writing analytical texts while reviewing artworks or writing artwork-inspired creative texts can foster improved teaching
and learning environments with Augmented Reality (AR and support both hard and soft skill development. It is obvious that
metacognition is not something new; however, the awareness about the learning processes and what is crucial for acquisition of
the language will boost the autonomy of the students in the wider modern context and lead to positive outcomes. When it comes
to advanced technologies, metacognition plays a crucial role here to keep the balance between the real life and time and the
reality offered by means of the technology. In practice, this creates a balanced learning environment that leads to the more
efficient outcomes in ESL/EFL acquisition. In the classroom where AI and other digital tools are revolutionizing the educational
climate, creativity can be considered a factor that leads to progress transforming the teaching and learning process into more
humanized practice intended to achieve higher learning outcomes. Humanization is the aspect that educators should strongly
consider to concentrate on as it is fundamental for the development of the soft skills that are as important as hard skills. To make
up for a risk of imbalance between those two metacognition seems to stand out as one of the practical skills that educators and
learners must be aware about and practice. This teaching framework focuses not only on language acquisition, but also on the
development of metacognition and complex thinking through the analysis of artworks in English, transforming the teaching
learning process into a meaningful real-life experience. Through guided observation, discussion, and reflection, students engage
with art as a context for thinking, communication, and self-awareness as a result developing metacognition. This study investi
gates how university instructors can implement creative practices in ELT to enable university students achieve higher results in
ESL/EFL acquisition that is focused on the development of skills. Using empirical methods, students’ practical responses to the
tasks were collected from the lecture series Developing Metacognition Through Creative Practice in English between KJU in
Budapest, Hungary, and ISU, Tbilisi, Georgia, through open interactive lectures. Qualitative analysis was applied to the responses
to identify the complexities of the produced language, ideas and level of metacognitive awareness. Findings indicate that
ESL/EFL students experience a dynamic transformation of metacognitive level of awareness characterized by three major im
provements:
1. increased motivation
2. minimized dependency on technology, prompting for learning not output, while producing complex texts
3. improved understanding of the effectiveness of the individual learning strategies and the flexibility to choose the
alternative method for favourable outcomes.
The study contributes to ongoing debates in higher education about the AI tools and the teaching and learning envi
ronment by highlighting the importance of the focus in teaching/learning frameworks in shaping educational processes during
digital transformation. It suggests that professional development initiatives should move beyond technical training to include
reflective components. Furthermore, the findings underscore the need for activation of the skills that have not been prioritized
before as skills in contemporary educational settings. Overall, this research advances understanding of how digitalization re
shapes the academic environment and offers practical recommendations for supporting educators and learners in overcoming
these changes. By foregrounding metacognition as one of the central skills of transformation of teaching and learning approach,
the study provides a foundation for future research and a particular framework development in ESL and ELT in higher education.