The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of young students' prior attitude on source consideration when watching videos on controversial topics. Two hundred seventy-one seventh graders watched a series of videos in which two interviewees (one expert in the field, one layperson) expressed divergent positions on a socioscientific issue…

The explosion of the Internet and prominence of social media platforms have created a dynamic online information ecosystem. The roles of traditional gatekeepers of credible information (e.g., news organizations) have been diminished, and individuals are often on their own in evaluating an abundance of information online coming from more sources…

This study investigated how and how often to present prompts to enhance students' source evaluation and multiple-text comprehension. Participants were 72 undergraduates who read a set of digital texts on a controversial topic of smartphone use and mental health, wrote a justification statement for their selection of trustworthy texts, and answered…

Librarians and instructors see college students struggle with evaluating information and wonder how to best teach source evaluation in a one-time course integrated library research session to ensure understanding and improve student performance. This research compared multiple sections of first-year students over two semesters taught two…

High school students need support learning to evaluate online information. Scholarship in the last several years has explored how to provide this support via lessons that explicitly teach evaluation strategies. In this study, we analyzed classroom conversations in two high school government classrooms during lessons that taught "lateral…

When individuals have questions about scientific issues, they often search the Internet. Evaluating sources of information and claims they find has become more difficult in the post-truth era. Students are often taught source evaluation techniques, but the proliferation of "fake news" has resulted in a misinformation arms race. As…

This paper discusses the development of a source evaluation assessment, and presents the results of using this instrument in a one-semester information literacy course for journalism students. The assessment was developed using the threshold concept perspective, the "authority is constructed and contextual" frame, and an established…

One of the main responsibilities of school librarians is to teach students to evaluate the credibility of information. There is little evidence to suggest that students are being explicitly taught how to evaluate news obtained through social media. As avenues for giving and getting information evolve, so must ways of teaching students so that they…

In our commentary on this excellent set of articles on "Sourcing in the Reading Process," we endeavor to synthesize the findings from the seven articles and discuss future research. We discuss significant contributions related to source memory, source evaluation, use of sources in action and belief, integration of information from…

When laypeople read controversial scientific information in order to make a personally relevant decision, information on the source is a valuable resource with which to evaluate multiple, competing claims. Due to their bounded understanding, laypeople rely on the expertise of others and need to identify whether sources are credible. The present…

Multiple text comprehension can greatly benefit from paying attention to sources and from using this information for evaluating text information. Previous research based on texts from the domain of history suggests that source-related strategies are acquired as part of the discipline expertise as opposed to the spontaneous use of these strategies…

Three indicators of undergraduate students' (n = 197) source evaluation were investigated as students completed an academic task requiring the use of multiple texts. The source evaluation metrics examined were students' (1) accessing of document information, (2) trustworthiness ratings, and (3) citation in written responses. All three indicators…

The present study investigated how undergraduates judged the trustworthiness of different information sources that they read about climate change. Results showed that participants (N = 128) judged information from textbook and official documents to be more trustworthy than information from newspapers and a commercial agent. Moreover, participants…

The present study examined whether students used qualitative information, quantitative information, or both when making course selection decisions. Participants reviewed information on four hypothetical courses in an advising context before indicating their likelihood to enroll in those courses and ranking them according to preference. Modeled…

This article introduces a framework designed to improve students' awareness of the need to critically evaluate websites as sources of information and to improve their skill at doing so. The framework, called the WWWDOT framework, encourages students to think about at least six dimensions when evaluating a website: (1) Who wrote this and what…