Education in the Intelligence Era: Challenges and Reorientation of Contemporary Educational Theories

Abstract

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming contemporary education and challenging established assumptions underlying educational theories. This study aims to examine the challenges posed by AI in the intelligence era and analyze the need for reorientation of contemporary educational theories in response to increasingly complex human–AI interactions. A qualitative systematic literature review was conducted using scholarly literature from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, with emphasis on publications from 2019 to 2026. The literature was analyzed through thematic analysis and critical interpretive synthesis, guided by the PRISMA 2020 framework, focusing on knowledge construction, learning processes, assessment, teacher and learner agency, ethics, and educational purposes. The findings indicate that AI is reshaping education through personalized learning, adaptive instruction, automated feedback, and expanded knowledge exploration, while simultaneously creating challenges related to knowledge reliability, learner dependency, academic integrity, assessment validity, data privacy, and human agency. The review further shows that constructivism, experiential learning, social learning, connectivism, and humanistic education remain relevant but require critical reorientation to accommodate AI-mediated learning environments. The study proposes a human-centered, AI-augmented educational paradigm that integrates technological intelligence with critical thinking, learner autonomy, teacher agency, ethical reasoning, reflective judgment, and meaningful human interaction.