Anthropic is giving Claude an upgrade that's perfect for students heading back to school and life-long learners eager for new ways to expand their knowledge.
Starting today (August 14), users will get access to new learning modes, tools designed to make the AI a helpful study partner and teacher. Similar to ChatGPT's Study Mode, this new upgrade means that users can look to Claude to guide them through the learning process, rather than simply giving users the answer.
That means students can dig deeper into complex concepts and junior developers can see the thought process behind working code; users can even write parts of it themselves.
Learning modes for education
Now, users will see a new preset called Learning in the style dropdown. Select it, and Claude switches to a Socratic approach; asking questions, challenging user assumptions and overall helping users figure out the answers with step-by-step guidance.
Anthropic first tested this back in April, but now it’s rolling out to everyone. The goal with this launch is to help students of all ages and ability build critical thinking skills and true comprehension, instead of memorizing quick answers.
Two new ways to learn in Claude Code
For developers, Claude Code is getting two distinct learning modes:
- Explanatory: Like having a senior engineer narrate their thought process, Claude explains why it wrote code a certain way, including trade-offs and design decisions.
- Learning: Claude pauses periodically and inserts #TODO markers, prompting you to fill in key code sections before moving forward.
To enable them, update Claude Code to the latest version, run /output-styles, and pick Default, Explanatory or Learning.
Why this matters
This is part of a broader shift in AI design: moving from automation to augmentation. Instead of replacing your effort entirely, Claude’s new learning modes blend productivity with personal growth, letting you work faster while actually getting better at the task at hand.
Following last week’s launch of Opus 4.1 and automated security reviews, Anthropic is clearly positioning Claude beyond a problem solver. For anyone who’s ever wanted AI to help them think, this could be the feature that makes it click.
Bottom line
Claude’s new learning modes mark a shift from AI as a shortcut to AI as a skill-builder. By combining guided discovery with real-time collaboration, Anthropic is positioning its assistant as more than just a productivity tool to a study partner, coding coach and critical thinking trainer.
With ChatGPT already pushing into similar territory, this move makes it clear that the next big AI race is about how well these tools can help you learn and develop your own skills along with the help of AI.
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