The relationship of (perceived) epistemic cognition to interaction with resources on the internet

Information seeking and processing are key literacy practices. However, they are activities that students, across a range of ages, struggle with. These information seeking processes can be viewed through the lens of epistemic cognition: beliefs regarding the source, justification, complexity, and certainty of knowledge. In the research reported in this article we build on established research in this area, which has typically used self-report psychometric and behavior data, and information seeking tasks involving closed-document sets. We take a novel approach in applying established self-report measures to a large-scale, naturalistic, study environment, pointing to the potential of analysis of dialogue, web-navigation – including sites visited – and other trace data, to support more traditional self-report mechanisms. Our analysis suggests that prior work demonstrating relationships between self-report indicators is not paralleled in investigation of the hypothesized relationships between self-report and trace-indicators. However, there are clear epistemic features of this trace data. The article thus demonstrates the potential of behavioral learning analytic data in understanding how epistemic cognition is brought to bear in rich information seeking and processing tasks

Why do doctored images distort memory?

Doctored images can cause people to believe in and remember experiences that never occurred, yet the underlying mechanism(s) responsible are not well understood. How does compelling false evidence distort autobiographical memory? Subjects were filmed observing and copying a Research Assistant performing simple actions, then they returned 2 days later for a memory test. Before taking the test, subjects viewed video-clips of simple actions, including actions that they neither observed nor performed earlier. We varied the format of the video-clips between-subjects to tap into the source-monitoring mechanisms responsible for the ‘doctored-evidence effect.’ The distribution of belief and memory distortions across conditions suggests that at least two mechanisms are involved: doctored images create an illusion of familiarity, and also enhance the perceived credibility of false suggestions. These findings offer insight into how external evidence influences source-monitoring

The evaluation challenge

For years writers concerned with information literacy (IL) – essentially the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to find and use information effectively – have stressed the importance of learners evaluating the material with which they come into contact whilst searching. As many commentators explain, the need to make sound judgements has become especially important today, since so much information searching now involves the World Wide Web. The evaluative framework proposed in this article was designed with the aim of helping to narrow the gap between discoveries emerging from research and the teaching of IL

Knowledge-Context in search systems: Toward information-literate actions

In this perspectives paper we define knowledge-context as meta information that searchers use when making sense of information displayed in and accessible from a search engine results page (SERP). We argue that enriching the knowledge-context in SERPs has great potential for facilitating human learning, critical thinking, and creativity by expanding searchers’ information-literate actions such as comparing, evaluating, and differentiating between information sources. Thus it supports the development of learning-centric search systems. Using theories and empirical findings from psychology and the learning sciences, we first discuss general effects of Web search on memory and learning. After reviewing selected research addressing metacognition and self-regulated learning, we discuss design goals for search systems that support metacognitive skills required for long-term learning, creativity, and critical thinking. We then propose that SERPs make both bibliographic and inferential knowledge-context readily accessible to motivate and facilitate information-literate actions for learning and creative endeavors. A brief discussion of related ideas, designs, and prototypes found in prior work follows. We conclude the paper by presenting future research directions and questions on knowledge-context, information-literate actions, and learning-centric search systems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148270/1/Smith and Rieh Knowledge-Context in Search Systems CHIIR2019.pd

Diving Below the Surface: A Layered Approach to Teaching Online Source Evaluation through Lateral and Critical Reading

As online environments have in many ways changed how information (including misinformation) is created and distributed, many educators have recognized a need for teaching new strategies for evaluating online sources for credibility and potential bias. Educators like Mike Caulfield and research groups like the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) have stressed the need for “lateral reading,” a habit of fact-checking when initially evaluating a source. When reading laterally, a person doesn’t spend extensive time initially examining what a source says about itself; instead, they quickly move off of the site in question to look at what others have said about the source and determine if that source is worth a closer read. Lateral reading is a vital first step to checking a source’s credibility, particularly when the credibility or motivations of a source’s creators are unclear. It’s also an important part of critical reading in everyday life. The value of lateral reading was made evident in SHEG’s 2019 study, in which professional fact-checkers, who regularly practice “lateral reading,” far outperformed history professors and undergraduate college students in identifying misleading information. SHEG’s Civic Online Reasoning curriculum helps many middle and high school teachers integrate lateral reading strategies into curricula. In higher education, Mike Caulfield’s work on web literacy, in particular his book Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers and his SIFT strategy, offers helpful models for lateral reading. Despite lateral reading’s seeming simplicity (moving off a webpage to find other coverage), if done formulaically, it’s not nearly as effective as if done with critical thought. For example, once you’ve left the webpage in question, what do you search for and what do you click on? How do you read the sources you use to investigate the source in question? Personal beliefs and biases can also powerfully influence how accurately a person evaluates a source. As research on confirmation bias illustrates, people tend to give less scrutiny to sources that fit with their pre-existing beliefs than they do to sources that challenge those beliefs. Done well, lateral reading requires a range of complex analytical and metacognitive reading skills and strategies. If you dig more deeply into SHEG and Mike Caulfield’s extensive work on lateral reading, this becomes evident. However, overviews of lateral reading tend to neglect how multi-layered critical lateral reading really is. Research on students’ web evaluation skills suggests that the range of critical reading strategies that are part of lateral reading are usually not taught explicitly. In contrast, some studies indicate that students are taught checklist approaches to evaluating online sources that focus on superficial features of a website (e.g., CRAAP, RADCAB). A checklist mentality can prevent students from engaging in more critical reading and evaluation of sources. The complexities of web evaluation point to the need for teaching lateral reading as a kind of critical reading that involves analysis of a source’s larger context and purpose as well as metacognitive reflection. In this chapter, we—two academic public services librarians who liaise with different disciplinary areas (the humanities/social sciences and life sciences)—discuss a scaffolded approach to teaching web source evaluation that brings together lateral and critical reading strategies. (Though lateral and critical are not mutually exclusive categories, critical thinking that ideally occurs during lateral reading is often not taught explicitly.) More specifically, we share our experience with developing an online tutorial on lateral reading and evaluating students’ analytical reading practices while they completed the tutorial. Finally, we discuss pedagogical takeaways useful for teaching lateral reading and critical source evaluation in a range of contexts

A design-based study of Citizen Inquiry for geology

Citizen Inquiry forms a new method of informal science learning and aims to enable the engagement of citizens in online scientific investigations. Citizen Inquiry combines aspects from Citizen Science and Inquiry-based learning and is implemented through a community of practice where people having a shared interest interact and exchange knowledge and methods supported and guided by online systems and tools within a web-based inquiry environment. To explore the potential of Citizen Inquiry, a series of design-based studies will be developed to help in understanding and improving the engagement of citizens in online scientific investigation. “Inquiring Rock Hunters” is the first design-study of Citizen Inquiry, applied to Geology, and it explores the experience of participants with inquiries, other participants and tools

Learning from Physics Education Research: Lessons for Economics Education

We believe that economists have much to learn from educational research practices and related pedagogical innovations in other disciplines, in particular physics education. In this paper we identify three key features of physics education research that distinguish it from economics education research - (1) the intentional grounding of physics education research in learning science principles, (2) a shared conceptual research framework focused on how students learn physics concepts, and (3) a cumulative process of knowledge-building in the discipline - and describe their influence on new teaching pedagogies, instructional activities, and curricular design in physics education. In addition, we highlight four specific examples of successful pedagogical innovations drawn from physics education - context-rich problems, concept tests, just-in-time teaching, and interactive lecture demonstrations - and illustrate how these practices can be adapted for economic education.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Journal of Economic Education, also available from Social Science Research Network <http://ssrn.com/abstract=1151430

Exoskeleton for the Mind: Exploring Strategies Against Misinformation with a Metacognitive Agent

Misinformation is a global problem in modern social media platforms with few solutions known to be effective. Social media platforms have offered tools to raise awareness of information, but these are closed systems that have not been empirically evaluated. Others have developed novel tools and strategies, but most have been studied out of context using static stimuli, researcher prompts, or low fidelity prototypes. We offer a new anti-misinformation agent grounded in theories of metacognition that was evaluated within Twitter. We report on a pilot study (n=17) and multi-part experimental study (n=57, n=49) where participants experienced three versions of the agent, each deploying a different strategy. We found that no single strategy was superior over the control. We also confirmed the necessity of transparency and clarity about the agent's underlying logic, as well as concerns about repeated exposure to misinformation and lack of user engagement.Comment: Pages 209-22