Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)'s emergence is viewed as a disruptive technological advancement that has been beneficial for most educational purposes but also coupled with emerging challenges and potentially destabilizing effects. Given the unprecedented onset and surge in interests, education stakeholders are often pressured to adopt such emergent technologies with little space and time to seek better understanding and to attain literacy. This paper brings together existing contributions to identify a list of five common themes (5Ts) and various uses of generative AI for improving students learning and future education research. The challenges and opportunities from the use of generative AI in education were also explored, and as part of a rethink of how stakeholders can continue to be relevant in a dynamic learning environment with emerging technologies, three "R" guidelines (3Rs) are also proposed to aid educators and students to stay ahead of the curve in addressing challenges and embracing opportunities arising from the use of generative AI for learning.