Students' credibility criteria for evaluating scientific information

The case of climate change on social media

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21392676
AutoresSoraya Kresin (0000-0003-2508-9120, Group of Biology Education, Institute for Science Education Leibniz University Hannover Germany, autor correspondente), Kerstin Kremer (0000-0003-2305-3650, Institute for Biology Education Justus Liebig University Giessen Germany), Alexander Georg Büssing (0000-0001-6482-4226, Group of Biology Education, Institute for Science Education Technische Universität Braunschweig Braunschweig Germany)
Ano2024
Volume108
Fascículo3
Páginas762-791
Data de publicação2024-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21855
OpenAlexW4391034346
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas47

The rise of social media platforms and the subsequent lack of traditional gatekeeping mechanisms contribute to the multiplied spread of scientific misinformation. Particularly in these new media spaces, there is a rising need for science education in fostering a science media literacy that enables students to evaluate the credibility of scientific information. A key determinant of a successful credibility evaluation is the effectiveness of the criteria students apply in this process. However, research suggests that existing credibility criteria are often not integrated into students' actual social media evaluation behavior. This hints to a lack of transferability of the existing criteria. As a consequence, knowledge about how learners evaluate credibility in social media is a first step in closing this gap. In the present study, we report results from six focus groups with 21 10th‐grade students (M = 15 years, 57% female, 38% male, 5% nonbinary) about their usage of different credibility criteria in the case of social media posts about climate change. The data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis and as a first step assigned to established credibility dimensions of content (what?) and source‐related criteria (who?). Additionally, given the complexity of social media, we also added a composition‐based category (how?). In a second analysis step, we adapted our subcategories to the recently proposed credibility heuristic by Osborne and Pimentel. The findings suggest that students generally take criteria from all three heuristic credibility dimensions into account and combine different criteria when evaluating the credibility of scientific information in social media. Based on the application of the credibility criteria to the heuristic, implications for the development of teaching materials for fostering science media literacy are discussed

Credibility · Gatekeeping · Heuristics · Literacy · Mathematics education · Media literacy · Misinformation · Numeracy · Pedagogy · Political science · Science education · Scientific Literacy · Social media · Source credibility · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Media and Politics