Unlocking critical thinking awareness via social presence and trust: a serial mediation and ordered network analysis of human-GenAI collaboration

As GenAI becomes embedded in educational settings, fostering learners’ critical thinking awareness is vital, but the underlying socio-affective mechanisms remain underexamined. Guided by the Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning in Digital Environments (CASTLE), this study examined the mediating roles of perceived social presence and human-GenAI trust. A mixed-method design integrating Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Ordered Network Analysis (ONA) was employed. Questionnaire data were collected from 101 Chinese university students engaged in an L2 speech-draft writing task with a humanised GenAI agent. Interaction logs from a subsample of 69 students who completed the full eight-week intervention were further analysed via ONA to map the transitions of cognitive engagement. Results showed a significant serial mediation via social presence and trust in predicting critical thinking awareness. ONA indicated that trust played a decisive role in sustaining cognitive interaction, whereas high social presence without sufficient task guidance sometimes produced social digressions.