Learner Characteristics, Web Source Evaluation, and Inquiry Learning: Evidence From Multiple Studies

• In Event: Situating the “Who” in Multiple Source Use: What Do Learners’ Characteristics Reveal About Online Processing?

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Frame
Online information searching on the Web is now widely used in educational contexts for carrying out school assignments. This extensive use of Internet as an information resource has posed new questions. Some of these regard problematic issues such as evaluating the quality of the information accessed (Bromme, Kienhues, & Porsch, 2010; Hofer, 2004; Goldman et al., 2009, 2012). Students must know what to believe and why when they search the Internet to find useful, relevant, and accurate information on an unfamiliar or controversial topic (Braasch et al. 2013; Mason & Boldrin, 2008; Walraven et al., 2013; Wiley et al., 2009; Wopereis & van Merriënboer, 2011). However, until recently, research has mainly focused on students’ searching behavior, and Web and task characteristics (Gerjets & Hellenthal-Schorr, 2008; Rouet et al., 2011; Thomm & Bromme, 2012). To extend current research, we carried out a series of studies to investigate students’ evaluation of the reliability of Web sources and the accuracy of the information provided in relation to their individual characteristics, which may favor or hinder this kind of evaluation. A common research question across three studies was: are learner factors, such as prior knowledge, epistemic beliefs, and argumentative reasoning, related to source evaluation and inquiry learning on the Internet?

Methods
The first study involved 64 Italian students in grade 13. Participants thought aloud during web searching on the controversial topic of the harmfulness of mobile phones. The second study involved 134 students in grade 9. It focused on teaching source evaluation on a basic topic (mobile phones) to examine the effects of instruction on a transfer topic (genetically modified food). The third, an eye-tracking study, involved 53 university students. It addressed implicit source evaluation while reading web pages regarding the universal validity of the central dogma of molecular biology. We collected various data about online processing and offline learning. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed.

Results
Study 1
Students’ produced differential patterns of activation of contextualized epistemic beliefs during online source evaluation. These beliefs and argumentative reasoning skills were related to learning from the Internet, favoring students with more availing beliefs and higher skills in identifying reasoning fallacies.
Study 2
Argumentative reasoning skill moderated source evaluation. Students who were low in this skill were more able to rank-order the most reliable sites in the instruction condition on source evaluation compared with those in the no-instruction condition.
Study 3
Epistemic beliefs moderated the relation between time spent on more immediate processing and webpage authoritativeness. More availing beliefs were related to a longer first-pass reading.

Conclusions and Scholarly Significance
Across the three studies, and for different age groups, texts, and tasks, individual factors such as epistemic beliefs and argumentative reasoning skill played a role in processing. From an applied perspective, the studies suggest that these individual characteristics can be developed by effective education, helping learners become sophisticated consumers of information in the digital era.

Authors

• Lucia Mason, University of Padova

• Patrik Pluchino, University of Padova

• Caterina Tornatora, University of Padua