Developing Students’ Critical Reasoning About Online Health Information‬: a Capabilities Approach‬

Abstract

The internet has become a main source for health-related information retrieval. In addition to information published by medical experts, individuals share their personal experiences and narratives on blogs and social media platforms. Our increasing need to confront and make meaning of various sources and conflicting health information has challenged the way critical reasoning has become relevant in science education. This study addresses how the opportunities for students to develop and practice their capabilities to critically approach online health information can be created in science education. Together with two upper secondary biology teachers, we carried out a design-based study. The participating students were given an online retrieval task that included a search and evaluation of health-related online sources. After a few lessons, the students were introduced to an evaluation tool designed to support critical evaluation of health information online. Using qualitative content analysis, four themes could be discerned in the audio and video recordings of student interactions when engaging with the task. Each theme illustrates the different ways in which critical reasoning became practiced in the student groups. Without using the evaluation tool, the students struggled to overview the vast amount of information and negotiate trustworthiness. Guided by the evaluation tool, critical reasoning was practiced to handle source subjectivity and to sift out scientific information only. Rather than a generic skill and transferable across contexts, students' critical reasoning became conditioned by the multi-dimensional nature of health issues, the blend of various contexts and the shift of purpose constituted by the students.Res Sci Educ

Navigating Alarming Media Messages About Nutrition and Health

“…Solli and colleagues conclude that the process of engaging students in a dialogic examination of science presented on the Internet shows promise for developing their critical appraisal of the complexity that typically surrounds science in media. This closely aligns with another recent Swedish study performed in a similar context (Wiblom et al 2017). The findings of the latter study suggest that when upper secondary school students collaborate to evaluate health information on the Internet, the trustworthiness of the science is negotiated in relation to the science education context, to the purposes constituted in classroom practices, and to what is personally relevant for the students.…”

“…This suggests that the critical examination of science in media reaches beyond trusting the "right" sources. We have previously shown (Wiblom et al 2017) that predefining certain sources, like universities and government, as trustworthy per se, may allow students to shortcut their evaluation of sources found on the Internet. The present study provides insights into how encounters with controversial science in media may also facilitate students' scrutiny of sources commonly regarded as "legit"-in science education and in society at large.…”

“…The gradually increased emphasis on students' "media awareness" or "media savviness" in science education research is reflected in several contemporary studies focusing on the development of students' critical examination of science in media (Belova and Eilks 2016;Solli et al 2017;Wiblom et al 2017). When a panel of British science and English teachers, science journalists, science communicators, and media educators were interviewed about key aspects of critical examination relevant for science education, they highlighted knowledge across four interrelated domains: science knowledge, media awareness, literacy, and the habit of an enquiring mind (McClune and Jarman 2010).…”

Scientific Literacies for Change Making: Equipping the Young to Tackle Current Societal Challenges

“…Young people today have access to an almost infinite amount of scientific information, including contradictory information on key issues of climate change, leading students to reuse already available and possibly misleading information online (Solli, 2019), when evidence-based scientific consensus on climate change is presented alongside a range of competing populist narratives. However, digital resources may also support students in developing agency (e.g., Kajama and Kumpulainen, 2019) and critical inquiry (Echeverri and Sadler, 2011;Wiblom et al, 2019). Changes in ICT align with changes in culture that significantly change possibilities for participation, boundary-crossing, and the formation and negotiation of identity and agency (Erstad et al, 2016).…”

Expanding the notion of ‘ownership’ in participatory research involving teachers and researchers

“…As she took part in PhD courses at the university, she gradually developed a theoretical understanding of the research objective that was not fully available to her colleagues. Her colleagues took part in the analysis in-between the intervention cycles, but their voices were not fully reflected in the analysis or conclusions and the teacher-researcher was the owner of the theoretical framing and disseminating the results (see Wiblom, Rundgren, and Andrée 2019).…”